The Girl I Left Behind Me
by ucsbdad
Summary: A war in a far off land has repercussions for Captain Kate Beckett and Rick as she meets old friends, new enemies and the occasional frenemy. Set after the end of Season Eight.
1. Chapter 1

The Girl I Left Behind Me

By

UCSBDad

Disclaimer: Sir! I do not own Castle, Sir! Rating: T: For language. Time: Three months after the end of season eight.

"Fucking A!" Gunner cried. "Did you see that?" He ducked his head down inside the armored HUMVEE.

From six miles above the desert floor, a flight of four French Air Force fighters, using eight laser guided bombs, had reduced a convoy of trucks to pillars of smoke and fire over shattered metal and roasted flesh.

"Get your eyes back outside and your head on a swivel." Chief snarled. "I don't want you to even think about anything but Ma Deuce."

Gunner got his head outside and wrapped his hands around the machine gun's spade handled grips, his fingers resting lightly on the butterfly triggers.

"Shit! There's a vehicle moving. Nail the fucker."

Gunner peered through his optical sight and squeezed a burst. He swore. "He's outta range. The tracers are burning out. I can't see where I'm shooting."

Behind them, a Malian Army technical unleashed a burst of fire from an anti-aircraft gun mounted on the back of the pickup truck. The shells sailed far to the left of the car, which was now starting to pick up speed and escape the ambush.

The car was stopped by a single round from a French AMX 10 armored car. The round exploded in front of the car, knocking it on its side.

The four French armored cars, followed by more French armored personnel carriers, began to move towards the remains of the convoy. The Malian vehicles followed more slowly. The four American HUMVEES kept up with the French.

The HUMVEE pulled up by the damaged car. Chief jumped out. "Doc, you do your thing with Mr. Dembele. Cody, you get to pull the bodies out. I want DNA from every body and body part in the convoy. Fingerprints if you can, dental, and all their IDs. Move."

Cody didn't move. "Why do I have to pull body parts and shit out."

"Because I said so." Chief said with a glare. "I'm going to check the wrecks to see if I can find out what kind of weapons the jihadis were moving. Doc needs to take DNA, and Mr. Dembele is an educated man and a civilian."

"What about Gunner?" Cody asked.

"He's on the M 2 making sure no jihadis jump us. Now, move, dammit." Chief headed towards the _adjutant_ from the _1er Regiment Etranger de Cavalrie_ who was just dismounting from his AMX 10.

Mr. Dembele was the first to move. He was an educated man having taught at a _lycee_ before the jihadis burned it down. Speaking and reading French, English and Arabic, he was happy working for the Americans as they paid well. However, he would prefer a nice clean job in the air-conditioned American Embassy in Bamoko. A Mr. Hunt there seemed to be interested in him.

Doc looked at the car, which was on its side. "Get on the other side and we'll push it over." Once the car was upright, Doc looked it over. "Brand new Mercedes. We got us a jihadi bigshot coming down from Libya, for sure. We'll check the back seat."

Unhappily, Cody pulled the first corpse out of the car.

Doc began his work. "He's got a Libyan ID. Check him against the databases, Mr. Dembele."

Dembele pulled out a laptop and typed in the information from the ID. "No record, Sergeant." Mr. Dembele always felt he should address his employers properly. "He's a young man, from Sirte according to his ID. I'd bet he's a local hired as a bodyguard and servant."

Doc nodded as he took fingerprints from the corpse. "We'll try the big guy next."

Once Cody had pulled the second corpse from the back, Doc searched him. "Bingo! Our boy has three passports on him. One Jordanian, one Egyptian and one German. Same picture, different names. Run him through the databases, please."

Mr. Dembele smiled. "We have one. Adnan Kartal. According to the database, he's a very important Daesh moneyman."

"Hey, Chief." Doc yelled. "We got some bigshot IS moneyman."

Chief trotted over and checked the ID and the database. "Let's pop the trunk and see what's there."

The trunk was full of heavy duty plastic bags. Chief opened one. "Oh my God."

"Those are US hundreds." Doc said softly.

Chief went through the rest of the bags. "US hundreds, British pounds, Euros, some Russian rubles and even some renminbi. Chinese money."

"There must be a million there."

Chief nodded. "Put all the money in a body bag and seal it up. We'll take the dead guy back with us, too."

"Where's he gonna ride?" Cody demanded.

"On your fuckin' lap." Doc said quickly.

"We'll get one of the Malian technicals to carry the bastard." Chief said.

They moved onto to the driver, who appeared to be just another young Libyan jihadi. The Doc started searching the man in the front passenger seat, after Cody had pulled him out.

"Oh, shit. This dude has a US passport. The bastard's an American." Doc leaned over to check the dead man's face. "Shit! Shit! Shit. I know this dude. He's Bob Bakari." He checked the passport. "Bashir al Bakari."

"You hang around with jihadis?" Chief asked.

Doc shook his head. "I went to high school with him. Everyone called him Bob. He was a good dude. Drank beer, ate pork, didn't mind his sisters running around dressed like…Well, dressed like Americans. Shit. How did he end up here?"

"Put him in a body bag. We'll send him back to his family. Then get busy taking DNA from all the other bodies."

Doc looked down the line of burned out trucks. "There's nothing but body parts all over the damned desert."

Chief nodded. "Then you'd better get to it."

The military didn't worry too much about keeping the air conditioning going in quarters. Consequently, Doc's air conditioning unit was crapped out more than it worked. However, computers and other sensitive electronics were another matter. So, Doc curled up in the tactical operations center in cool comfort, knowing that Sergeant Mullins wouldn't be sticking his boots in Doc's face for a good four hours. He rolled his woobie, AKA, poncho liner, up into a pillow and prepared for several hours of restful sleep.

Someone kicked him.

"Mullins, dammit. I'm trying to sleep here."

"Get up." Chief said. "We're leaving."

"We just got in off of a patrol!" Doc complained. "Why are they sending us out again."

"They're not. We're headed for Fort Bragg. They want you and me back ASAP."

"Are we in trouble?"

Chief shrugged. "They'll tell us when we get there."


	2. Chapter 2

The Girl I Left Behind Me

By

UCSBDad

Disclaimer: Sir! I do not own Castle, Sir! Rating: T: For language. Time: Three months after the end of season eight.

Meanwhile….

Rick Castle came out of the bathroom and found his wife getting dressed. "Kate, what are you doing?"

"Getting dressed. What's it look like?"

"Dress slacks, a white blouse and a blazer? Are you thinking of going to the precinct?"

"No." She said quickly, then turned away from him.

"Beckett, you were shot just three months ago. You are on medical leave. You're not even cleared for desk duty. You're not going to the precinct. Besides, Captain Fuller is covering for you."

Beckett snorted. "Fuller has been so deep in the bowels of One PP for so long that he wouldn't recognize a crime scene if one kicked him in the ass. Besides, he's fishing in upstate New York and can't be reached. And I'm not going to the precinct."

Castle sighed. "Where are you going?"

"There's been an officer involved shooting. One suspect dead, one officer wounded. I'm going to the crime scene."

"And no one in all of the NYPD can handle it?" Castle asked sarcastically.

"The wounded officer is Ann Hastings."

Castle sighed. _Of course, it was Officer Ann Hastings._ Castle put on his best smile. "I realize that you two have a history. She became a cop because her dad was murdered."

"And she helped me out with that bastard Bracken."

Castle slowly nodded. "And unlike the love of your life, the love of her life dumped her for a job in LA, but that doesn't mean…"

Kate cut him off. "Yes it does, Castle. I've been her mentor. She's passed her written and oral exams for detective and all she needs now is for a detective spot to open up. Ray Walton is retiring in six weeks and if she's physically incapable…."

"Wouldn't she need a doctor and not a mentor?" Castle asked softly.

"Castle, it'll just take a few minutes for me to drive to the crime scene. To see if there's anything I can do."

Castle dropped to one knee and took Kate's hand. "Mrs. Captain Katherine Houghton Beckett Castle, would you please allow me to drive you to the crime scene? Remembering that you no longer have a police car? Since you're on medical leave."

Kate was almost successful in suppressing her smile. "Are you going just wearing a towel wrapped around your waist?"

"If I have to."

This time she laughed. "Okay. Go get dressed."

He stood, but headed to the kitchen. "First I need to make you some coffee. We can't have you arriving at a crime scene with no caffeine in your system." Suddenly, a thought occurred to Castle. "How did you find out about this shooting?"

"A friend called me." Kate said vaguely.

"A Hispanic friend who should know to keep his mouth closed?"

"I'm not saying."

In less than ten minutes, Castle was leading Kate towards his Mercedes. When he opened the passenger side door for her, Kate came to an abrupt stop. "Castle, what is this?"

"What?" He asked as innocently as he could.

"A blanket and a pillow. I do not need to be coddled. I don't want to be coddled."

"And yet I do my best to coddle you." He said soothingly. "Get in, Beckett. We need to get going."

Kate did her best not to let on that getting into the car was painful and did allow Castle to wrap her in the blanket and put a pillow behind her head. But when he reached for her feet, she glared at him. "You'd better not be planning on putting those pink fuzzy bunny slippers on my feet. If you are, you'll regret it."

Casting an eye to be sure that the pink slippers were hidden in the back seat, Castle smiled. "Nonsense. I'm just making sure your feet aren't cold. You were shot, you know."

"You were shot, too." She grumped.

"Yes, and by good fortune and Caleb Brown being a lousy shot, I wasn't badly wounded. He managed to miss every one of my vital organs. You were not so lucky, however."

Without the lights and siren to clear traffic for them, it took twenty minutes to get to the crime scene.

"This isn't a police car, Castle. Pull up and park here."

Castle ignored her and pulled up right behind Esposito and Ryan's car. "You just don't want anyone to see me helping you out of the car. It's okay. Everyone knows you were shot."

Kate thought about saying something, but decided to let her husband help her out of the car.

Castle quickly took in the crime scene. Hasting's patrol car was in front of Espo and Ryan's car. Hastings was sitting sideways in the front seat with her feet on the ground. An FDNY paramedic was checking her over. Ryan and Esposito were kneeling by a dead body in front of the Beirut Bakery. Lanie was standing up and glaring at Kate. A second uniform, apparently Hasting's partner was standing on the other side of the police cruiser with an African American civilian.

"Why hasn't Officer Hastings been transferred to the ER?" Kate snapped.

The paramedic, a skinny bleached blonde, looked up. "Sorry, Captain. We have a mass casualty in midtown and we're short of ambulances. A car bomb. My ambulance took the old man from the bakery to the ER. He was pistol whipped pretty badly."

"Captain Beckett." Hasting's said. "I've just got a bruise. My Kevlar stopped the round. I don't need to go to the ER. I can…"

"That's for a doctor to decide, Ann. You know the drill. As soon as another ambulance gets here, you're going to the ER."

"The ambulance should be here in five or ten minutes, Captain." The paramedic said.

Kate turned to the officer standing in front of the cruiser. "Officer Pelham, what happened."

"We were on patrol and I saw Junior Johnson here standing across the street. Junior's a Jamaican from the Trenchtown Posse. He's way out of his area. So I stopped to see what he's doing here. I left Hastings to stay on the radio. I had just gotten to Junior when I heard a shot from the bakery. Two Hispanics ran out. One had a pistol and shot at Hastings, who had gotten out of our vehicle. She was knocked down and the suspect shot at her again, but missed. She shot him in the head. Must have died instantly. The other one took off down the alley. By the time I got there, he was gone."

"Do you have anything to add, Hastings?"

Before Hastings could reply, Junior Johnson spoke up. "My good friend, Officer Pelham, has made him one mistake. I am not a gangster. Not with Trenchtown Posse. I am a good Christian man. I accept Jesus Christ as my personal savior."

"But you agree with everything they say happened?" Kate asked.

"Oh, yes. The beautiful blonde officer was shot by that awful man. Twice he shot at her, hitting her once and only then did she shoot the rascal. Shoot him dead as he deserve."

"Will you sign a statement to that effect?" Kate asked, surprised that a gangster, even one who had found Jesus, would help the police.

"Of course. I am a good Christian. I accept Jesus Christ as my very own personal savior. I will tell the truth. Nasty man shoot nice officer."

Kate and Rick walked around so they could talk to Hastings face to face. Rick suddenly was looking at Hastings' boobs. The paramedic had taken her shirt, Kevlar and bra off to examine her and had just put her shirt over her shoulders.

He turned around at once. "I didn't see a thing."

"Like you didn't see anything that time my apartment blew up?" Kate teased.

"I didn't see a thing." He repeated forcefully.

"Usually men will at least look." Hastings said. "Even if they're happily married. Is there something wrong with my boobs, Castle?"

Kate, Hastings and the paramedic were having trouble not laughing.

"I can't win, can I?" Castle asked rhetorically.

"You certainly can't, Writer Boy." Lanie said, walking towards them. "Especially if you bring your injured wife to a crime scene. What were you thinking?"

"Lanie, I insisted on coming. He's just making sure I'm okay."

"You're not okay, Sweetie. You were badly wounded and you still have problems. And how did you know about this?"

"Yeah. How did she know, Esposito?" Castle demanded.

"Me?" Espo said defensively. "I didn't call her."

"A likely story." Castle grumped.

Ryan raised his hand. "It was me. I knew Beckett would want to know about Hastings. I didn't think she'd come to the crime scene."

A civilian car came to a screeching halt just behind Castle's Mercedes and a tall, painfully thin, grey haired woman go out and headed for Officer Pelham and Junior Johnson.

"Ma'am, this is an active crime scene." Pelham began.

"I can see what it is and I'm not going to let you use that as an excuse to keep me from my client." She put her arm around Johnson. "Are you all right? How badly have they beaten you? Did you see them murder your friend?"

Johnson pulled away. "He's a bad man. He's not my friend. I am a good Christian and have accepted Jesus Christ as my savior. I was telling the nice po-lice how that bad man shot at the lovely officer."

"You needn't be afraid." The woman said loudly. "I'm your lawyer now. I'll protect you."

"You are not my lawyer. If I need lawyer, I ask my friend Justin Black. Go away, woman."

Kate leaned over to whisper to Castle. "Justin Black represents Trenchtown Posse members. Apparently even the good Christians who have accepted Jesus Christ as their savior."

The woman backed away from Junior Johnson, giving everyone a glare and headed for the dead suspect. "I'll need name of the man the police murdered."

Lanie smiled at her. Somehow it was not a friendly smile. "I'm the Medical Examiner. I haven't made any official ruling yet on the death. We'll have to wait until the next of kin are found and notified before his name is released to the public."

"Of course you'll do exactly what your superiors tell you to do."

"If you have any problems with my work, you should file a complaint."

The woman whirled around and glared at Kate. "Detective Buckley, I'm holding you personally responsible for this."

Kate nodded. "Of course you are, Ms. Bolger."

The woman stomped off to her car and roared off.

"Who was that?" Castle asked.

"Theresa Bolger, attorney at law, who sees everything as a giant plot by the police."

"I'm surprised neither you or Lanie blew up at her."

"Oh, we long ago discovered that the way to really get her angry is to be polite to her." Kate said with a laugh.

Before the conversation went any further, the FDNY ambulance arrived and Hastings was sent off to the ER.

"Were there any witnesses other than Mr. Johnson?" Kate asked.

"The daughter of the owner." Ryan replied. "She was pretty upset, so we wanted her to settle down before we talked to her."

"Then let's go talk to her." Kate headed for the bakery.

"Beckett!" Castle called after her. "You came to check on Hastings. She's headed for the ER. We can go home now."

Kate ignored him and went into the bakery. Castle, the two detectives and Lanie followed her.


	3. Chapter 3

The Girl I Left Behind Me

By

UCSBDad

Disclaimer: Sir! I do not own Castle, Sir! Rating: T: For language. Time: Three months after the end of season eight.

Once inside, Kate went to the young woman standing behind the counter. Her eyes were red with crying, but she smiled automatically as she saw the detectives enter.

"May I help you?"

"I'm Captain Kate Beckett. Do you feel up to talking about what happened today?"

The woman nodded. Kate guessed her age as mid-twenties and noted she wore some makeup and wore a yellow uniform with the name Dalal embroidered on it. When not crying, she would be quite pretty.

"Of course. I'm Dalal Bakari. My father owns the bakery. Do you know if he'll be okay?"

Ryan answered. "I talked to the paramedic. They think he has a mild concussion, but they took him to the ER to check him out and be sure. We can give you a ride to the hospital after we talk."

Dalal shook her head. "I have to wait for my brother, Fadal, to get here to watch the bakery. He's going to baker's school in New Jersey."

"Your family is from Beirut, Lebanon?" Kate asked.

Dalal blushed and shook her head. "My family is from Syria, but we decided the name Beirut was…less threatening to Americans. My parents fled during the 1982 rebellion. We're all citizens. My brothers and sisters and I were all born in the US."

"Can you tell us what happened?" Kate asked.

"I was in the back in the bakery itself. I heard someone come in and then I heard a man demand money. I heard my father open the cash register, but the man said, "Not that money. The other money."

"What other money?" Kate asked, now curious.

"My father is a hawaldar. He runs a hawal. A form of Islamic bank."

Kate looked puzzled.

Castle spoke. "Islamic law forbids charging interest. So many Muslims, and others, have set up a different system. It works without sending any money anywhere."

"How can that work?"

"Suppose I'm in New York and I want to send a thousand dollars to someone in Beirut to pay a debt. I give the money to a hawal here in New York. The local hawaldar calls up his counterpart in Beirut and tell him to pay a thousand to my contact there. If we have a long term relationship, he'll know who to give the money to. Otherwise, we'll set up a password so my friend in Beirut can identify himself. A week later, someone in Beirut want to send a thousand dollars to someone in New York. The hawaldar in Beirut calls the hawaldar in New York and he hands over the thousand he has here. Of course, it can get quite complex with larger amounts of money. The Koran forbids interest, but not fees for services rendered."

"Where do you keep the money?" Kate asked.

"Over there." Dalal pointed to a rather flimsy door in the back.

"Did the suspect shoot at your father?" Ryan asked.

"No. When I heard what was happening, I came in from the bakery. He shot at me. You can see the bullet hole on the wall." She pointed.

"We'll need to see the money." Kate said.

"Do you have warrant?" Dalal asked.

"Your father was pistol whipped and sent to the ER over what's in that room. Do you think I'll have any trouble getting a warrant? And in the meantime, the other suspect is getting away."

Dalal nodded. "Come with me."

On the other side of the door was a small office and a very large safe. Dalal opened it.

Castle whistled. "That's a lot of money."

"Six hundred and sixteen thousand, eight hundred dollars." Dalal said. "I help my father."

"And the money could be going to anyone, anywhere." Ryan said softly.

Dalal shook her head violently. "No! We're Americans. My father cooperates fully with the US Treasury. No money goes to terrorists, I swear."

"We'll have to take all the money back to the precinct." Kate said.

"I'll need a receipt."

"Of course, Miss Bakari."

When they left, Castle edged his wife towards the car. "We should go home now. You've seen Hastings and she's okay."

"I just want to go to the precinct to make sure Johnson doesn't change his mind."

Castle sighed dramatically. "And then you'll just want to take a quick look at your desk, and then you'll see something and you'll want to talk to Ryan and Espo about it and before I know it…"

She smiled at her husband. "Coming Castle?"

He sighed and helped Kate into the car.

Castle was happy to find that Kate's temporary replacement, Captain Fuller, had a clean desk policy. Which meant that anything that landed on Fuller's clean desk was promptly sent off elsewhere.

While looking at her now pristine desk, Kate got a phone call from Lanie.

"Since I want you out of here ASAP, Sweetie, I rushed the fingerprints for our vic. He's Pedro Obrador, a small time thug with priors for B&E, muggings and assault. You can go home now."

Kate laughed. "I'll tell Castle to get the car. Thanks, Lanie."

They had almost made it to the elevator when Espo stopped them. "Beckett, Alfonso Grau is her to see you."

"Kate is going home." Castle said quickly.

"What does he want?" Kate asked, getting a sigh from Castle.

"He says he has some information about the shooting of Ann Hastings."

"My shooting?" Said a voice from the opening elevator.

"Hastings! What are you doing here? I sent you to the ER."

"And they sent me home. I have a bruise. Nothing more. So you have a lead?"

Rick put his arm around Kate and tried to move her towards the elevator. No luck.

"Alfonso Grau is here. He says he has something."

"Can I sit in on the interrogation, Captain?"

"Kate will not be…."Castle began, but Beckett and Hastings were already headed to the office used for non-adversarial interrogations.

"Who is this Grau?" Castle asked Esposito as they followed the two women.

"Big time drug dealer. Insulated by layers and layers of people between him and anything illegal. Narcotics and the DEA have been after him for years."

Grau turned out to be an expensively dressed, manicured, with the requisite very expensive watch and the requisite expensive attorney.

He rose and held out his hand. "Captain Beckett, I've heard so many good things about you."

Kate hesitated a moment, but then shook his hand. "You have some information about Officer Hastings' shooting?"

"Ah! Right to the point. I like that. "Grau sat down, as did everyone else.

"I own a Ferrari dealership. I have occasionally used Pedro Obrador to clean up clients' cars when they come in for service. His work is adequate, if slow. Two days ago, a Dr. Penny Ma brought her car in for routine servicing. She showed me that she had a very expensive laptop she'd bought for her college age daughter. She wanted to leave it in the trunk of her car since she was seeing her daughter later that day and wanted to give it to her on her birthday as a surprise. When she came to pick up the car, the laptop was gone, as were the two people who'd cleaned up her car: Obrador and a Cuban named Mike Suarez. I called both of them and let messages that they'd better explain how the laptop went missing. Then I heard Obrador had been shot robbing some place, and that he had a partner. I'm willing to bet the partner was Suarez. I have his address here." He handed a piece of paper to Kate.

Kate stood up. "Thank you, Mr. Grau. We'll take it from here."

Once Grau and his lawyer were gone, Kate turned to her detectives. "The first thing we need to do…"

"Is for you to go home, Captain. You look awful." Hastings interrupted.

Rick put his arm around Kate. "She's right. We need to get you home. Ryan, Esposito and Hastings can track down this Suarez."

Kate allowed herself to be led to the elevator.

Once back in the car, Castle asked a question that had been bothering him. "Why would a dealer like Grau come in like that? You'd think he'd avoid the police like the plague."

"Two possibilities. "Kate replied. "He really is angry at Suarez for embarrassing him in front of a client, but wants us to take care of it so he doesn't have to get his hands dirty. Or, he's had his eye on the Bakari's operation and his two henchmen went rogue and tried to grab it for themselves. One's already dead, so no problem. Why not let us take care of number two?"

Castle smiled. "And if Mr. Bakari does get robbed, Grau is on record as being a good citizen."

When they returned to the loft, they found a very anxious young redhead waiting for them.

"Where have you two been?" Alexis demanded. Then she caught sight of Kate's badge and Glock. "You've been to the precinct. You know you're not supposed to be at work. When I got home and you weren't here, I was worried you'd had a relapse or something. I've been calling hospitals and ERs for an hour. How could you do this? You're hurt, Mom. Hurt badly."

Rick put his arm around Kate. "And she's very tired now, Alexis. I'm going to put her to bed now and the two of us can talk about this when I'm done." Castle guided his wife to their bedroom.

Rick took his time settling Kate down for a nice, long nap and then went to face his daughter.

"I'm sorry, Dad. I over reacted. But Kate is as close to a mom as I've ever had. Oh, you've been a great parent, but my birth mom is totally self-centered and Gina was…."

"Difficult." Castle finished for her. "But we both love Kate because she's going to go out there and put everything on the line when she has to. She's been mentoring Officer Ann Hastings. You know how similar her story is to Kate's." Alexis nodded. "Hastings was shot today. "Seeing the look of horror on Alexis' face, he quickly added. "Her protective vest stopped the round. She has a bad bruise."

Rick gave his daughter a hug. "Now, because we both love Kate so much, why don't we get busy and make her a fantastic dinner?"


	4. Chapter 4

The Girl I Left Behind Me

By

UCSBDad

Disclaimer: Sir! I do not own Castle, Sir! Rating: T: For language. Time: Three months after the end of season eight.

Meanwhile…

Chief and Doc got out of their car. Doc rubbed his hand over his freshly shaven face. "At first I couldn't get used to having a beard in the Army. Now I feel weird being clean shaven."

Chief grunted. "Command told us to try to blend in with the FBI. At least one of us does."

"One of us? You look like you just stepped out of the pages of Gentleman's Quarterly, if they had an issue called "What the well-dressed _mullah_ is wearing."

Chief shrugged. "I needed a civilian suit earlier this year. I found a Kurdish tailor in Erbil. At least I have a nice conservative dark suit."

"Hey! My pay records are lost somewhere in Africa. I had to max out my credit card to afford this sport coat. You'd think the damned Exchange would have more than one coat in my size."

Chief ran his eye over Doc. He was wearing spit shined black low quarter Oxfords, black issue socks, khaki pants, a nice blue wool sport coat and, regrettably, a bright orange tee shirt. It had a flight of Huey helicopters on top. Under that were surfers and the words, "Charlie Don't Surf".

"You don't have any kind of a dress shirt?"

Doc shook his head. "I had one in case of a sudden wedding or funeral or something. But my sister borrowed it to paint her place. It looks worse than this. And before you ask, this is the most tasteful shirt I own. I have another one that says "Charlie Don't Surf", but it has a picture of Charles Manson on it."

Chief just shook his head.

"You think polite guys who worry about what people think about the clothing they wear are going to stop the jihadis?"

"Let's go see the Feds, Doc."

Once past the security guards and metal detectors, they took the elevator to the FBI's floor. Entering the office, they found a man in a seriously conservative blue suit, white shirt and striped tie. Doc guessed to himself that the man got his haircut every day.

"Can I help you two?" He asked.

"Chief Warrant Officer Henry McCarty and Staff Sergeant Vincent Peake, US Army. Here are copies of our orders."

The FBI agent scanned the orders, then looked the two men over. He seemed to spend a long time looking at Peake's bright orange tee shirt.

"Are you two armed?" He demanded.

"Yes."

"Hand over your weapons." He held out his hand.

"No way." McCarty said. "These are issue sidearms. And we have concealed carry permits.

"You work for the FBI now and we don't allow civilians to carry weapons."

Doc smiled. "According to international law, and I refer to the Geneva and Hague Conventions, as well as other treaties and agreements, civilians are non-military persons. That makes you the civilian here, not us."

The agent glared at Doc. "Listen, kid, you don't want me to have to disarm you."

McCarty spoke. "Considering that we're legally under arms, I'd consider that to constitute assault and attempted theft of government property. But, if you want to try…."

"What's going on here, Agent Sorenson?" A woman's voice said from behind the agent.

"These two civilians won't hand over their weapons."

The woman stepped in front of the FBI agent. McCarty checked her out. She was nice looking, though older, dark haired and seemingly in good shape. He hoped that meant she was out in the field a lot and not behind a desk.

"Will, these people aren't civilians, they're simply from another agency, like US Treasury agents, or Homeland Security."

"I think…." Sorenson began.

The woman cut him off. "I'm Special Agent Jordan Shaw. You'll be working with me. Please come into my office."

McCarty didn't smile as he walked past Sorenson. Peake did.

Once in Shaw's office, she picked up two folders. "I have your records here, but I'd like to hear from you. Mr. McCarty, would you care to begin?"

"Where do you want me to start."

"How about when you joined the NYPD."

Peake was interested at once. He had no idea that McCarty had been in the police.

McCarty leaned back and gathered his thoughts. "I came from a cop family. My two grandads were cops, my dad, my uncles, my cousins all were cops. The women of the family were either cops themselves, or married cops. Not just NYPD, but Port Authority, New York State Police, even a US Marshal. All I ever wanted to be growing up was a cop like everyone else in my family." McCarty smiled. "I graduated from the Police Academy in 2001."

He stopped and shook his head and stared off into the distance.

"Mr. McCarty?" Special Agent Shaw said.

"In May 2001 I was with a veteran officer, a Sergeant Dunn. We pulled up next to another squad car with two more officers in a really, really bad neighborhood. It was one open air drug market, with all of the killings you'd expect. To my surprise, Dunn told me to go to a bodega down the street and get us all ice creams. At the time, I thought it was some stupid hazing of the poor dumb rookie, but I went. I had just gotten into the bodega when I heard automatic weapons fire. Lots of it. I ran back and found that the three had gone into an old tenement. All three were dead. I called it in and in minutes the place was crawling with cops. They never caught the shooters, although they did find the weapons a few days later, tossed in a dumpster."

McCarty sighed. "Somehow I became the villain. Everyone was convinced that I had either refused to go in, or ran when the gunfire started. I was marked as a coward."

"Didn't the NYPD talk to the people in the bodega? People on the street?" Shaw asked.

McCarty laughed. "In that neighborhood it was worth your life to talk to the cops. No one had seen a thing. As I was the only witness, the NYPD couldn't formally punish me, but they have ways of punishing people who they believe don't meet their standards. I was transferred to Personnel at One PP and told I was never leaving and that I'd never be promoted. Worse, my family bought the idea that I was a coward and stopped having anything to do with me. My wife, who was also from a cop family, divorced me."

"No one believed you?" Shaw asked.

"If they did, they never mentioned it. Anyway, the more I thought about it, the more I worried that maybe everyone was right, and I was wrong. Had I really run away and had made up the whole ice cream thing in my mind? The human mind can do very strange things. But, to make a long story short, I decided that the only way I could find out if I was really a coward was to leave the NYPD and enlist. After my first enlistment, I re-upped. I really felt I had no place else to go. I became a Ranger, then Special Forces, then Special Forces Operating Detachment- Delta, and now I'm with, or was with, a group of US, French, and British special forces, along with the CIA, in the Sahel region of North Africa. And now I'm here."

"There's more to the story, though, isn't there." Shaw said.

"Karma is a bitch." McCarty said with a laugh. "Years later they were tearing down the building where the three cops were killed, and they found a dead body and a bag full of cash hidden away. Several hundred thousand dollars in cash. The dead guy was the money man for a gang of Haitian drug dealers. He'd been shot in the back of the head. They matched the bullet to one in the NYPD's records. It was from the gun of one of the dead cops. It turned out the three cops were dirty. They'd been stealing money and drugs from dealers. I was dragged out of the Middle East to help with the investigation. I was pretty sure that it was going to be a whitewash, but I was wrong. The NYPD cracked the case."

"You worked with Detective Kate Beckett and her team, didn't you?" Shaw asked, although she already knew the answer.

"Yeah. Her and her husband and her two detectives."

"What did you think of them?"

"Damned good. They were the kind of cops I'd wanted to be."

"So what happened with the case?"

"It turned out that the whole thing was managed by one of my uncles who was high enough in the NYPD to tell the three beat cops who to hit and when. He even set up their murder since they were flashing way too much cash, using drugs and hookers. My uncle killed himself, but other members of my family and my ex-wife's family were involved and went to prison."

"You must have gotten some pleasure when you confronted your family."

McCarty shook his head. "I talked briefly with my ex, but I haven't seen any of my family since I was a cop. I have a new family now."

Shaw looked at McCarty's record. "I didn't know you had remarried."

"I haven't. But I have a million and a half brothers and sisters now. More, if you count the people in other militaries I work with."

Shaw turned to Vince Peake. "What's your story, Sergeant Peake?"

"My story isn't as dramatic as Mr. McCarty's. My family was rich and then we were poor. My parents divorced when I was twelve. My dad was a partner in a Wall Street brokerage firm. The divorce was amicable. So much so that my dad continued to manage my mom's investments, even after he took a job in Silicon Valley with a big venture capital firm. But, Dad had some financial problems about the time I was ready to graduate from high school. He "borrowed" some of his clients' money, but that didn't solve his problems. So, he stole one hundred and sixty million dollars from his firm and headed for Brazil. He also took all of Mom's money and my and my sister's college funds. We weren't quite dead broke. We had a townhouse in Manhattan and a condo in Miami, but our lifestyle was nothing like what it had been. We moved in with my mom's parents and everyone bitched. My grandparents bitched about how stupid my mom had been to marry my dad. My mom bitched about being broke. My sister bitched about not being able to pay for Yale Law School and I bitched about everyone else bitching."

"How did you end up in the military?" Shaw asked.

Peake laughed. "I'm not sure myself. I should have gotten a bunch of student loans and gone to some college, but I enlisted. To this day I'm not sure why I did. A real spur of the moment kind of thing. But, I found out I liked the Army and really loved being a combat medic. I started out with an airborne unit, then the Rangers and finally Special Forces."

"You also know Rick Castle and Kate Beckett, don't you?"

Peake laughed. "Mostly I know his daughter, Alexis Castle. We went to high school together. She tried to civilize me. In fact, it must have been about the time Mr. McCarty was working with them."

"What do you men by civilizing you?" Shaw asked.

"She was pre-med at Columbia. She was trying to talk me into getting out of the Army and going to med school, but I didn't buy it. I love what I do. Not just patching up wounded GIs, but in most of the places I've been to, I'm the closest thing to a real doctor people have ever seen. I just love helping people out, which is a lot of what I do as a Special Forces medic. Yeah, I could become an MD and work for Doctors without Borders, but they can't go places I can. Not without getting shot to bits."

"Do you like the Castles?" Shaw asked.

"Sure. All of them. Are we going to be working with Detective Beckett?"

"It's Captain Beckett now. She was the head of the 12th Precinct."

"Was?" McCarty interrupted. "What happened?"

"She got involved with a rogue CIA analyst who was running a major drug ring. She took him down, but one of his partners broke into the Castle's loft and shot both of them before Beckett killed him. Castle was lucky and has recovered nicely. But Beckett was more severely wounded and is still on medical leave. But I hope to get the NYPD to let her go on desk duty. I've worked with the two of them before as well and I do want them both if it's at all possible. Now, do you to know why you're here?"

 **Author's Note: Some of you may recall Henry McCarty and Vince Peake from my story** ** _Who Are You?_**

 **And, I've previously mentioned that I occasionally like to use the names of real people for my fictitious characters. Anyone know of a real Henry McCarty from New York City who was at one time in law enforcement?**


	5. Chapter 5

The Girl I Left Behind Me

By

UCSBDad

Disclaimer: Sir! I do not own Castle, Sir! Rating: T: For language. Time: Three months after the end of season eight.

McCarty looked over at Peake, who shrugged. "I assume it's because Sergeant Peake and I found a dead kid from New York, who went to high school with Peake, sitting next to a big money man from the Islamic State and a whole bunch of cash."

"That's partly it." Shaw said. "But there's more. You two now work directly for the commander of the Intelligence Support Activity, which is the Joint Special Operations Command's own intelligence agency. And so damned secret I can't get the commander's name or how to contact him, except through you two."

"We'll be happy to call him up for you." McCarty said softly.

"I'll take you up on that when the time is right. Although I do want very badly to have Rick Castle and Captain Beckett in on this, they come with some baggage, so to speak. The CIA was very angry that their rogue analyst was captured very publicly. They felt it should have been handled very quietly and in house."

"Termination with extreme prejudice?" McCarty asked.

"Something like that. I'm just worried that if the Castles are involved, the CIA will be uncooperative on general principals. Oh, there's a rumor I can't track down that Castle and Beckett were involved with another major CIA screw up."

"We, the military, get along really well with the folks in the CIA's Special Activities Division, their paramilitaries, but we sometimes don't get along with the CIA's higher ups." McCarty said.

"We'll just have to do the best we can." Shaw checked her watch. "It's late and Captain Beckett won't be at her precinct, if I can get approval from the NYPD, until tomorrow. Do you two have someplace to stay?"

"The Army booked us into a hotel not far from the 12th Precinct."

"Then I'll give you a call tomorrow and tell you when to go to the precinct."

Once back in their car, McCarty, pulled out an electronic sweeper and checked the car.

"You think someone's bugging us?" Peake asked.

"No. But it doesn't hurt to check." McCarty gave Peake a long, appraising stare. Then he spoke. "Do you know why we're here?"

Peake frowned. "I'm guessing I really don't."

"How much do you know about what happened before 9/11?"

Peake shrugged. "A little. Why?"

"Both the FBI and the CIA were watching the jihadis who hijacked those airliners and flew them into the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. The CIA can't legally operate in the US, so when they found out that the jihadis were doing some strange shit, learning to fly planes without learning how to take off or land, they asked the FBI to arrest them. The FBI said that they couldn't. Doing strange shit is not against the law and the FBI needed some evidence of a crime to do anything. So neither agency did anything."

"And we're here because…?" Peake asked.

"If the FBI finds out anyone's doing weird shit, but they can't arrest them, we'll try to get them to flee the country. Once they're abroad, hopefully in Syria, or Libya or someplace like that, we can kill them. Not us personally, but the military. If they won't flee the country, well, there are other means."

"What other means?"

McCarty just smiled. "Don't worry about it."

Peake nodded, deciding that the government now had people who could do things that might, or might not, be strictly legal.

Meanwhile….

"Thanks, Espo." Kate said, turning off her phone.

"What did Espo want?" Castle asked, suspiciously.

"He just called to tell me that they went to Suarez's apartment. He's in the wind. Some of the neighbors say he probably took off with his girlfriend from New Jersey, who has a car. But no one knows anything about the girlfriend or her car."

Kate was about to get ready for bed when the phone rang again. She looked at the caller ID. "That's odd. Its Mayor Weldon. But why isn't he calling your phone?" She answered. "Hello?"

"Captain Beckett?"

"Yes. Did you want to talk to Rick?"

"No. I have a favor to ask of you. The FBI has a very important investigation going and it intersects with the attempted robbery today where one of your officers was shot. They want you to take over the 12th Precinct for the length of the investigation. I insisted that you would stay strictly in your office, and they agreed. They really were quite insistent."

"No!" Castle yelled.

"Of course." Kate said.

"Good. You'll be working with Special Agent Jordan Shaw. She asked for you two especially."

"No good deed goes unpunished." Castle muttered.

The next day…

"This sucks." Castle said, for about the hundredth time.

"Babe, I'll be here in the office all the time. It won't be any different than if I were in the loft."

"Except for the stress of working on a high profile Federal case. Kate, you shouldn't be doing this. I intend to call Weldon and…."

"Too late, Babe. It looks like we have Federal company." Kate said, pointing to the opening elevator.

Castle wasn't surprised that Jordan Shaw was there, but that she had both Henry McCarty and Vince Peake with her was a surprise.

Shaw shook hands and introduced everyone. Only Officer Hastings had never met any of the three before. Then Shaw apologized.

"Kate, I'm sorry to have called you to the precinct, but this is important. I know how good you are, and how good your team is. Especially Rick. He'll be very useful to us in the field."

"Flattery will get you nowhere." Rick grumped. "I'm going to make damned sure that Kate stays here in her office and nowhere else. And if she shows any sign of any kind of a problem, I'm taking her home, or to the hospital."

"I agree completely." Jordan said.

"You do?"

"Absolutely. Now, can I explain why we're here?"

Everyone, Castle included, nodded.

"The biggest problem we have, at least from the FBI's perspective, in fighting terrorists, is shutting down their finances. It's hard to move weapons or fighters from one place to another, but money is just money. It looks the same whether it's money going to the IS or the Girl Scouts. I've explained to Mr. McCarty and Sergeant Peake what you've found here in New York, now I want Mr. McCarty to explain what they found in the Sahel in Africa."

McCarty explained in some detail what they had found.

"So you think that there's a connection between the Bakaris here in New York and the dead IS money man?" Kate asked.

"We think it's worth looking into." Shaw replied.

Before anyone could say anything else, Kate's phone rang. She listened intently, saying nothing that gave the people in her office any clue as to what she was hearing.

Hanging up, she sighed and spoke. "The Pennsylvania State Police found Mike Suarez and a woman they believe is his girlfriend at a rest stop on the Pennsylvania Turnpike. Both dead. Both shot once in the head."

"I'll bet that Grau has an ironclad alibi." Castle said disgustedly.

"Babe, Grau is too smart for to be involved personally. Like I said, he has layers and layers of people between him and anything illegal."

"Who's this Suarez, anyway?" McCarty asked. "His name didn't come up in our briefing. Maybe we should read over everything the NYPD has and they can read all of our reports. We don't want to miss something that seems trivial now but could be important later."

With some griping that was agreed to.

"One other thing. It appears Mr. Castle is unarmed. If he's going to be out with us, he needs to be armed." McCarty said.

"I used to have a concealed carry permit when I had my own private eye company. But I sold it to an associate so I could spend full time looking after my wife. They rescinded my permit."

McCarty glanced at both Shaw and Kate.

Shaw shook her head. "The FBI can't just arm a civilian. It would take longer than this case would last to process the paperwork."

Kate nodded. "Same with the NYPD."

"The Army could hire Mr. Castle as a civilian contractor and allow him to be armed. We do it all the time downrange."

"We're not downrange." Shaw said. "I'm sure it would take longer for the Army…."

Shaw stopped speaking as McCarty put a briefcase on the table and took out a sheaf of papers.

"Mr. Castle, please initial where the red Xs are and sign at the bottom of the last page."

When Castle began initialing, Kate spoke.

"Babe, shouldn't you read that? Or better yet, have someone else go over it?"

"If I did that when I first started following you, how would that have worked out?"

"Signing Mr. Castle to a contract is one thing, but a Federal concealed carry permit…."

Mc Carty handed Castle the permit.

"And now you just need weapon. You can have my old one." McCarty removed a highly modified Colt M1911A1 pistol from his briefcase, complete with a holster, extra clips and a box of ammunition. He handed it to Castle who put the shoulder holster on at once.

"If that's your old one, what do you carry now?" Esposito asked.

McCarty removed a very large pistol from his shoulder holster. "This is an AMT Hardballer Longslide. It's basically a clone on the original M1911A1 government Colt. It's called the Hardballer because it's designed to shoot standard GI ball ammunition. Longslide because it's got a longer barrel. Seven inches instead of five."

"I've seen that weapon somewhere else." Castle said.

"It's what Schwarzenegger carried in the first Terminator movie."

"Ah'll be bahk." Castle said.

"I see he hasn't changed any." Shaw said with a grin.

"Actually, he has since we got married, but I still can't take him out in public."

"You know I can hear you."

"We know." Both women said.

The various reports were passed out as needed. McCarty and Peake grabbed an empty office and began to read the reports.

"Oh shit." McCarty mumbled. "We have company."

Peake looked up to see a bulky, balding, red faced man headed for them.

"You know him?"

"He's my older brother, Sergeant Michael McCarty, NYPD."

"You want me to leave?"

McCarty shook his head. "Why?"

Sergeant McCarty cleared his throat when he saw that his brother was engrossed in some report.

"What do you want, Sergeant McCarty?"

"Jesus, Hank. Are you still a hard ass about this?"

McCarty pushed the report away. "What did you expect? My own damned family wouldn't even listen to me. Every time I tried to tell anyone what really happened, all I got was, "Man up and tell the truth, Hank." I did tell the truth and I've manned up pretty well. Better than some of my family."

"Can we at least talk in private, Hank?"

"Sergeant Peake and I are doing important work. In other words, we're busy."

Sergeant McCarty was starting to turn red in the face and then purple. "Kid, will you leave us alone?"

Peake smiled. "My superior ordered me to stay."

The cop turned back to McCarty. "Dammit, Hank, we just want to put this behind us."

"That's odd. I don't remember anyone in the whole family being so anxious to put things behind us when everything was my problem and my fault. But things have really changed now that the shoe's on the other foot."

"What do you mean?" The cop barked, getting purpler in the face.

"The McCartys and the Moores have a history of being dirty cops now, don't they? I know how the NYPD thinks. How many cops wonder how that many people could have been dirty and no one in the families knew a thing? I'll bet the family hasn't been getting promotions since our uncle killed himself and everything turned to shit. Do you get a lot of looks now? People talking about you behind your backs? When someone in the family turns in money or drugs, are their bosses very careful about how they count it?"

"Yeah!" Sergeant McCarty grunted. "Things haven't been easy for us."

"So, maybe it would be nice for the NYPD to be reminded that there's another side to the McCarty family. A nice heroic Special Forces family member? That might help the family's bad name, couldn't it."

"I just came here to try to make things better. But, you know what? Forget it." McCarty turned and walked away from his brother.

"You don't get along with your family, do you?" Peake said.

"How would you feel if your father walked in?"

Peake laughed. "Great. He'd get his ass arrested."

"Okay, sergeant. Enough fun. Back to work."

 **Author's note: Henry McCarty was born in New York City in 1859. He later took his stepfather's last name and became, Henry Antrim. However, when he moved to New Mexico he became known as William H. Bonney, AKA Billy the Kid. The two sides in the Lincoln County war used their political friends to attack each other, so Billy was once a member of a posse, called the Regulators, authorized by a local Justice of the Peace.**


	6. Chapter 6

The Girl I Left Behind Me

By

UCSBDad

Disclaimer: Sir! I do not own Castle, Sir! Rating: T: For language. Time: Three months after the end of season eight.

The two soldiers plowed their way through the NYPD reports for another half an hour.

"Mr. McCarty? There's a woman headed this way and she's looking right at you. And if looks could kill…"

McCarty looked at the approaching woman.

"Shit. That's my ex-wife."

"You want me to leave this time?"

"No, I may need you to help protect me this time."

Peake knew McCarty could handle just about anything, but he understood what he was saying. The woman coming towards them was seriously mad.

"You! Sergeant whatever your name is. Get lost. Now!'

Peake was halfway out of his chair when McCarty grabbed his arm and pushed him back down.

"Detective Demming, is it? Sergeant Peake and I are working. Do you need something? Officially?"

"To begin with, like Captain Beckett, I use my maiden name at work. And second, just how big an asshole are you, anyway?"

Peake was glad McCarty had made him stay. This had the makings of a great fight. Epic. Legendary, even.

"Since you and the rest of my former family did a great deal to make me what I am today, you should be able to figure that out on your own."

"We made a god damned mistake. You got screwed. We're sorry. I'm sorry. What in the fuck is it going to take to get you to act like a human being? This is your damned family, for God's sake. Do you understand that?"

"I understand my family. Believe me I understand them. Which I why I have no interest in them!"

"Mr. McCarty! Detective Moore!" Kate's voice cut through the argument. "Does this argument have anything to do with the case we're working?"

"Not a damned thing." McCarty barked.

"No, Captain." Moore said sullenly.

"If you two want to have a knock down, drag out fight, you'll do it somewhere other than in my precinct. Do you understand?"

Moore nodded, turned and stomped back to the elevator.

Kate turned to McCarty. "Let me ask you a question, McCarty. Granted you got screwed by the NYPD and by your family. Has it ever occurred to you that everything worked out for the best? You have a career that you seem to be doing very well in. You've probably gone further in the Army than you would have in the NYPD. Would you really be happier, knowing what you know now, if you were still a cop and still married to Detective Moore? Think about it."

Kate turned on her heel and went back to her office.

"She has a point." Peake said.

"She does. And I know she does. But what my family did to me still hurts. It hurts a lot."

The two continued to read the reports until they had read them all.

"Are you two done?" Kate asked.

"We are, Captain." McCarty replied.

"You should knock off now. There's nothing else happening. We're going to go back to the Bakari's bakery tomorrow to talk to, the daughter, Dalal, and hopefully Mr. Bakari. We haven't advised the family of the death of their son in Africa yet. Would it be appropriate for either you or Sergeant Peake to tell them? You know the most about the death, but you were part of the unit that killed him."

"It's never easy to tell someone that someone they love has been killed, ma'am. But since Peake knows the family, he might be best to tell them."

"Do you have any problem with that?" Kate asked Peake.

The young man shrugged. "I guess not."

"Another thing. From what you know of Muslim customs, would it be appropriate to tell the daughter rather than a male member of the family?"

Peake and McCarty looked at each other. Then McCarty spoke. "Muslim customs aren't all the same. African Muslims who live in the Sahel are different from urban Muslims who live in Damascus, Baghdad or someplace like that. US Muslims would be different still. But, no matter how we do it, its gonna hurt."

Kate stumbled as they entered the loft that evening. Before she could say a word, Castle picked her up and carried her towards the bedroom.

"Castle! I just stumbled. I caught my foot on the carpet. There's no reason for you to overreact."

"I always overreact where your health or safety is involved. I'm going to put you on the bed so you can have a nice nap before dinner."

Realizing that resistance was futile, Kate allowed herself to be placed gently on the bed.

"Is there anything you need?"

She hated to have to ask, but she was starting to feel soreness in her abdominal muscles. "Um, could you take my boots off, please?"

Castle removed her boots. When he was done he saw she was trying to take her jacket off.

"Let me do that."

"Castle, I'm perfectly capable of…." Before she'd finished the sentence, he had gently lifted her up and removed her jacket.

Then she started to take off her blouse.

"Why are you taking your blouse off?" He asked suspiciously.

"I need to take my bra off."

"Why?"

Kate gave him a dirty look. "If you had to wear one of the damned things after being shot you'd understand." Kate removed her bra and then pushed herself up so she was resting on the pillows. She examined herself.

"A bullet scar between my boobs, a big surgical scar from that shooting, a scar across my stomach from my first day as a captain. It looks like shit because I had to sew it up myself. And more scars and surgical scars from when that bastard Caleb Brown shot us." Kate sighed. "No wonder you look at Hastings' boobs."

Rick sat down beside her. "I did not look at Hastings' boobs. The only boobs I ever look at are yours. They're the best boobs there are. Beckett's best beautiful bouncing breathtaking bewitching bodacious busty buxom boobs."

Kate laughed and pulled Castle into a close embrace, then kissed him. Castle kissed back until he felt Kate place his hand on one of her boobs. He pulled back at once.

"Kate! You know were not cleared for any love making. The doctor specifically told us that."

Kate nodded. "I know. But we can make out, can't we? That's nowhere near as stressful as real sex. Just a little kissing, with a little tongue, and maybe you could play with my boobs a little. You like to play with my boobs, don't you?"

"I love playing with your boobs, but…."

Castle never finished the sentence as Kate had her tongue in his mouth.

In spite of his misgivings, Castle found himself kissing Kate's boobs and playing with her engorged nipples. He felt Kate reach down for his erection and stopped for a moment.

"If you can touch me, Castle, I should be able to touch you, right?"

He had no answer for that, so he began tweaking one nipple with one hand while sucking on the other one. Somehow, without him realizing how, Kate managed to get his pants off and hers as well. She was just pulling down her panties when…..

"Mom! Dad! What are you doing!" Alexis shrieked.

"You'd think someone in medical school could figure out what we're doing. "Castle said under his breath.

"You are not cleared for sex. Not in any way, shape or form. Are you trying to kill Mom?"

It was about this point that Alexis realized she was staring at her mostly naked parents, shrieked again, turned red and ran from the bedroom.

"You have no idea how much I've missed sex." Kate said with a sigh.

"Yes I do. And we both missed it this time. But, we really shouldn't until the doctor gives us the okay."

"You're right." Kate said, intending to seduce Castle as soon as possible.

"I'd better go settle Alexis down. You take a nap, okay?"

Castle quickly dressed.

"Pumpkin, I'm sorry you saw that. But, I love Kate more than anything and we just got carried away."

"Dad, I over reacted. I'm sorry. But, Kate really is my mom to me. She's the only one who's ever tried to be a mom for me. When the two of you were shot, I realized that I might lose both of my parents. And now I worry about both of you all the time."

Rick put his arms around his daughter and hugged her. "Kate, that is Mom, will be going back to work as a precinct captain. She'll be behind a desk from now on. You won't have to worry."

Alexis snorted. "Oh? I know you and I know Mom. You'll both be right in the middle of things."

"No we won't. No, let's get busy with dinner. You don't want Mom to starve, do you?"

The first thing next morning, Kate, Rick, Ryan, Espo, Hastings, Shaw and the two soldiers drove to the Beirut Bakery. Walking in, only Dalal was visible behind the counter.

"Hello, officers, and how are you…." She stopped when she saw a very familiar face. "Vince Peake? Is that you? You became a cop?"

Peake took a deep breath and walked towards Dalal. "Hi, Dalal. I'm not a cop. I'm a soldier. Can we go in the back somewhere? I have some bad news."

"Is it my dad? Did something happen to him?"

Peake reassured her it wasn't her dad, and taking her by the elbow, he led her back into the bakery.

"It's about your brother, Bob. Bashir, that is."

"He's in Cairo, studying our religion."

Peake shook his head. "He was in Mali, with a convoy of jihadis bringing weapons from Libya to jihadis in the Sahel."

"Was?" Dalal said, tears starting to form in her eyes.

"I'm sorry. He's dead."

She began to cry. Then she looked at Peake. "How do you know?"

"I told you. I'm a soldier now. Seventh Special Forces Group. I was there when his convoy was attacked."

"Did you kill him?" She asked.

"No."

"What happened?"

Peake told her the story of how US intelligence had picked up radio traffic indicating a large convoy of arms was being sent south from Libya. US and French forces tracked the convoy using satellite imagery, drones, interception of radio communications and even small recon teams staking out known jihadi routes. Once the convoy was well into Mali, a force of mixed French and Malian soldiers with a small group of US Special Forces was sent out. A flight of French Air Force planes destroyed most of the convoy and a French armored car had done for Bashir.

"We have his body. I know that Muslims are supposed to bury their dead ASAP, but…."

"I'll have to call my brother Fadal. Can you please tell me where…" Dalal stopped for a moment, then continued. "Can you tell me where he is?"

"Mr. McCarty has that information. He can give it to you." Peake wondered if he should try to interrogate Dalal about what he might have been doing. He decided to give it a try.

"Your brother was found in a Mercedes with a Turkish moneyman for the Daesh called Adnan Kartal. There was a lot of money in the car with them. US dollars, Euros, British pounds…."

"That bastard! He got Bashir killed!" Dalal spat and then began to cry.

Peake was confused. "Kartal? He couldn't have killed Bashir. He didn't have a gun on him and Bashir had an AK and a Beretta."

Dalal shook her head, but continued to cry. After a minute she spoke. "No, I meant Hadj Mohammed al Amriki. He's a _mullah_ at the local mosque. Oh, he goes on about Islam being a religion of peace, but then he'll go on and on about how Muslims have a right to defend themselves. He's the one who talked Bashir into going to Egypt. It's his fault. I know it is."

"Dalal, I think you'd better talk to Captain Beckett and Mr. McCarty about this."

Dalal quickly explained who Mohammed al Amriki was.

"He's an American, Caucasian, who converted to Islam in the late eighties. He's made the pilgrimage to Mecca and he has studied at al-Azhar University in Cairo. It is probably the finest center of Islamic learning in the world."

"The finest center of Sunni Islamic learning." McCarty said, under his breath.

Dalal looked at him, but made no reply. Shaw on the other hand glared at him.

"We'll go back and see what we can get on the _mullah_ from FBI sources. Mr. McCarty, could you ask your colleagues for whatever info they have?"


	7. Chapter 7

The Girl I Left Behind Me

By

UCSBDad

Disclaimer: Sir! I do not own Castle, Sir! Rating: T: For language. Time: Three months after the end of season eight.

Once they were outside, McCarty apologized. "Sorry about that. I know were trying to stay on Dalal's good side. But I hear all about the various types of Islam. Many Sunnis consider Shias to be little better than infidels. Then we have Sufis, Bahai, Ahmadiyy, and then there are your Druse, Alevis and Alawis. All of which are looked down upon, at the very least by the Sunnis and Shias. Arabs don't like Iranians and…."McCarty stopped. "It gets hard watching people kill each other about things we settled long ago."

"Now we kill about politics and economics." Peake said with a smile. "Like civilized people."

That got him glares all around.

When they returned to the 12th Precinct, they had a visitor waiting.

"Special Agent Boswell." Shaw said. "What brings you here?"

Boswell was an attractive blonde whose very conservative dark pantsuit couldn't conceal her curves. Shaw introduced her as a US Treasury agent.

"I've been talking to Mr. Bakari. I'm his contact with the Treasury Department."

"Bakari is a CI?" Shaw asked.

Boswell shook her head. "Nothing so formal. He just keeps us informed about what's going on the world of the _hawals_. A lot of the local _hawaldars_ are afraid of the police, having grown up in police states, so Mr. Bakari settles them down so they can talk to us, or he passes anything they have along to us."

"Has he come up with anything useful?"

"Sorry, Shaw. We've gotten tips on some low level arms merchants and one jihadi outfit in Yemen, but the chatter we've gotten indicates the jihadis stay away from Bakari and his friends. They call him "un-Islamic."

"What do you want us to do?"

"Give the man his money back. And you might have the local cops keep an eye on him. The people who tried to rob him were apparently Hispanic, but they might have been paid by jihadis."

"So, in addition to run of the mill killers and thieves, we now have to worry about terrorists?" Castle complained.

"'Fraid so."

"Okay." Shaw broke in. "We'll start getting Mr. Bakari's money back to him. Kate, if you'd handle that? Mr. McCarty and I will see what we can find out Hadj Mohammed al Amriki."

Peake was happy that he was apparently being left out of the work. Then he saw a familiar looking redhead leaving the elevator. She did not look at all happy.

"Where is my mother?" Alexis Castle loudly demanded, standing in the middle of the bullpen. "She's been here long enough. She needs to go home."

"Alexis, I'm in my office. I'm just finishing up some paperwork to get a man back some money we seized from him. It'll just be a few minutes."

"It had better be." The redhead said with a grimace. She looked over the bullpen and her eyes lit on a familiar face. "Vince Peake? What are you doing here? You're not a cop now, are you?"

Peake laughed. "No. I'm still a soldier. We're just helping out with something based on what we found downrange."

"What is that?"

Peake shook his head. "Sorry. We can't discuss that."

Alexis smiled shyly. "I should know after all this time hanging around cops that you can't talk about an open case. What are you doing in the Army now?"

"Special Forces." Peake got up to talk to Alexis. As he did, his jacket opened, showing his sidearm.

"Are you carrying a gun?" Alexis demanded.

"Sure."

"Why?"

"The usual reason. To shoot people."

Alexis stepped forward and grabbed Peake's arm. She dragged him into an empty office and closed the door.

"I thought you were a medic."

"I am a medic. I've been a medic and carried a weapon since I enlisted."

"I thought medics were noncombatants. That the enemy wasn't supposed to shoot at you."

Peake grinned and shook his head. "Maybe they did that long time ago, but not now. Until someone gets hit, I'm just another trigger puller. Even then, I sometimes have to shoot people to keep myself and my patients alive."

"You've shot people? Killed them, even?"

"Yes. I've killed people. I'd rather save lives, but if people try to kill me, I try to kill them. So far, I've killed more of them than they have of me."

Alexis was about to say something when Kate stuck her head in the door.

"Okay, Dr. Castle. Your patient is ready to go home."

Alexis looked at Peake, then at Kate. She turned and walked away and out the door.

"What was that all about?" McCarty asked when Peake sat down again.

"I think Alexis just figured out that part of my job is killing people, one way or another. She's a med student, or so I hear. From the look on her face when I tried to explain what I do, killers aren't her favorite people."

McCarty just shrugged. "The jihadis aren't going to be stopped by pacifist redheaded med students, any more than they'll be stopped by people who wear nice, unoffensive tee shirts. You've been deployed. You know that."

Peake decided he had to change the subject. "We need to contact the Activity and see what we know about this Hadj Mohammed al Amriki."

"Already done, kid. While you were getting shot down by the redhead. They think they can have us something by tomorrow morning. Maybe some input from the Agency, as well."

When McCarty and Peake got back to their hotel, McCarty asked to see the rest of Peake's shirts.

"Why?"

"Because you look like an idiot running around with the cops in a bright orange tee shirt."

"Hey! Big news. I'm not a cop."

"Haul out your shirts, Sergeant."

McCarty muttered under his breath when he saw the shirts. "Pork Eating Christian Crusader?" "Foxtrot Uniform Charlie Kilo Oscar Foxtrot Foxtrot?" "I Am the Infidel Allah Warned You About?" "MOAB. Just Because?" "What Doesn't Kill Us Better Fucking Run?" "Yea, Though I Walk Through the Valley of the Shadow of Death, I Shall Fear No Evil. For I Am the Evilest Motherfucker in the Valley." Jesus fucking Christ! "

"That's the green one over there." Peake said, smiling.

"Come on." McCarty said, grabbing Peake by the arm. "We're going shopping."

"I don't have any money."

"You can owe me."

"Suppose I get killed before I pay you back?"

"I'm not that lucky."

Peake showed up at the 12th Precinct the next day with a white shirt and a conservative tie. He didn't know whether to be happy or sad that no one seemed to notice.

Jordan Shaw called everyone into a conference room.

"I got what the FBI has on Mr. al Amriki. It isn't much. He doesn't use any kind of social media and he doesn't own a cell phone. What calls he makes are on public phones and none of the conversations we've picked up are at all interesting. We do know that eleven people from his mosque have gone to Syria and Iraq to fight for the Islamic State, one went to Somalia and one to Yemen. We don't have much on them before they left the US and nothing after. Mr. McCarty? You have anything?"

McCarty checked the e-mail he'd received the night before. "The Intelligence Support Activity has nothing on Amriki and we didn't get anything from the Agency. ISA has confirmed two of the US jihadis who went to Iraq are dead as well as the guy in Somalia. I've asked them to keep looking."

Shaw looked around the group. "Anyone have anything else?"

Tory Ellis, from tech support raised her hand.

"Ms. Bakari handed over her dead brother's laptop. The guy was smart. There isn't a damned thing that's useful to us."

Castle decided to tease her. "I thought you could make the most professionally wiped of hard drives sit up and sing to you?"

She glared at Castle. Not a Beckett glare, but close. "I can. But, like I said, he was smart. He bought a new hard drive for his computer. All that he transferred from the old hard drive is family stuff. And the old hard drive is probably at the bottom of the Hudson River or worse."

"We, and by we, I do not mean Captain Beckett, will go back to see Mr. Bakari. We'll be taking his money back to him, so he should be in a good mood." Shaw said, getting a minor glare from Kate.

"Castle. Take lots of pictures." She called after her husband. "And take notes."

Mr. Bakari was happy to get his money back, and he was in a good mood.

"Do you have many Hispanic customers, Mr. Bakari? Anyone who'd know you had a lot of money on hand?" Shaw asked. "Anyone who came in recently who might have been staking out the store?"

Bakari shook his head sadly. "I can't recall ever having a Hispanic customer for the _hawal_. For the bakery, there was an older lady who might have been Hispanic, but that was months ago."

Dalal couldn't think of anyone who might have tipped off the two dead thugs about the money Bakari had.

It seemed that the investigation had come to a dead end.

"We have something." McCarty said as they were about to leave the precinct for the night. "I just got an e-mail. The Agency is sending someone here tomorrow to brief us on what they have on al Amriki. They say he'll be here tomorrow morning at 8 AM sharp."

"What are we likely to get from them?" Shaw asked.

"Damn little, I'm afraid. It'll probably be some senior analyst out of Langley and he'll want to keep anything important strictly within the Agency. That's why Special Ops set up the ISA. That, and we wanted different information than the CIA was providing."

"How so?" Castle asked, more interested in expanding his knowledge of the intelligence community than anything else.

"The CIA was fixated on getting access to the inner workings of the North Korean politburo, or how many nukes the Pakistanis have. We wanted to know how many jihadis were in the next valley in A-stan and what weapons they had. They were big picture, we weren't."

"We'll take what they give us and be happy about it." Shaw said, seeing the disappointed looks around her.

Everyone was ready at the precinct at eight o'clock. They were ready at nine and still ready at nine fifteen. Then the elevator door opened and a tall, muscular, heavily bearded man in a dark suit walked in. He headed straight for McCarty. He stopped in front of the soldier and raised his arms over his shoulders.

"D-U-U-U-U-U-U-D-E!" He bellowed. "How it is, my man?"

McCarty began laughing. "Aren't you dead yet?"

"Absolutely, dude. Can't you tell?"

McCarty shook his head and turned to the rest of the team. "People, this is Enver Hoti, the world's only Albanian-American Muslim surfer dude and spy."

"Pleased to meet you, Mr. Hoti." Shaw said, holding out her hand. "I'm Special Agent Jordan Shaw. Let me introduce you to my task force."

"Please call me Hottie, since I am a hottie. And I know everyone here. At least as far as the Agency knows them. Hoti turned to Kate. "Captain Beckett, you have been one naughty hottie, haven't you?"

Kate opened her mouth, but decided she'd be better off saying nothing.

"Do you want to brief us?" McCarty interrupted.

"Absolutely, dude. That al Amriki dude is a slippery dude. I met him in Cairo a couple of years back. We were at a seminar on whether the sayings of Mohammed, called the _hadith_ , can all be accepted as second only to the Koran. Some of the sayings are abso-tutley from the mouth of the Prophet, but others…." Hoti raised his hands palm up and frowned. "Others, maybe not. For instance…."

"Before we get to the part deciding whether American Muslims can celebrate Christmas, can we talk about Amriki?" McCarty broke in.

"Christmas is an old pagan tradition, adopted by early Christians and turned into a purely secular holiday by Americans. Muslims, Jews, Hindus, Sikhs, Buddhists and everyone else who's American should celebrate Christmas, bro."

"Including Amriki?" McCarty said sarcastically.

"I think Amriki probably is the Grinch. Anyway, when I was with him, I saw him turn over a whole bundle of cash, US dollars, to a guy who works for the Arab American Children's Fund. They do actually build schools and feed kids and whatnot, but a good slice of the gelt goes to buy AK 47s and other toys little kids should not play with. And, I have it on good authority that neither the collection of the money, its transfer out of the country, or its distribution was ever reported to any agent of the US. Except me, of course."

Shaw smiled. "I think we should have a little talk with Mr. Amriki."

 **Author's note: All of Sergeant Peake's tee shirts can be bought on line.**


	8. Chapter 8

The Girl I Left Behind Me

By

UCSBDad

Disclaimer: Sir! I do not own Castle, Sir! Rating: T: For language. Time: Three months after the end of season eight.

 **Author's note: Parts of this chapter may tend a little bit towards M.**

As everyone got up to leave, Shaw turned to Kate. "Not you, Kate. You stay here. And I've asked Lanie to come up here to make sure you stay here."

"It's just an interrogation with…"Kate began.

"You." Shaw pointed to Kate. "Here." She pointed to Kate's chair.

Kate glared at all and sundry. "Castle, take pictures if you can. Record any conversations and call me if anything, anything at all seems out of line."

"Of course. "Rick said, not reminding her that conversations recorded without consent would be useless as evidence and vowing to call her only in case of absolute disaster.

Once everyone was in the elevator, Castle turned to Hoti.

"What did you mean by Beckett being a naughty hottie?"

Hoti laughed. "Nothing. I just like to keep people off balance, jerking your chains a little." He laughed again. "Then again, that's what you'd expect a CIA type to say, isn't it?"

Lanie was thrilled when the team came back three hours later. She had spent the whole time watching Kate look at her computer, then check her phone for messages, go back to her computer then to her phone and so on endlessly.

"Castle! What happened?" She cried as soon as she saw her husband.

"Nothing." He said, sitting in his chair wearily.

"Nothing? Something must have happened."

"Let's see. Islam is a religion of peace, as is Christianity, Judaism and all the rest. But, not all Muslims, Christians and Jews are peaceful people. Al Amriki is of course 100 percent peaceful although he understands why some Muslims are angry and violent. About the money, he says he was asked by an acquaintance in Cairo to hand the money over. He doesn't recall who the acquaintance is as it's been several years. The Arab American Children's Fund is a legitimate charity, even if some members steal money and use it for bad ends. And carrying money from one part of Cairo to another to give to a charity is not something that has to be reported to the US government. And he has nothing to hide, as long as we have a search warrant, which we didn't have and are unlikely to get."

"That's it?" Kate was disappointed.

"Did you expect a confession?"

Kate sighed. "I was hoping for something."

"This could be it for the investigation. "Rick said. "Mr. Bakari seems to be a stand up guy, not involved in anything illegal, and the attempted robbery was just a couple of thugs going for a big score and not some vast terrorist plot. And both thugs are dead now, one shot by Hastings and one shot way out of our jurisdiction"

Kate smiled. "What? You're giving up that easily? No CIA plots? No zombies? No extraterrestrials? Who are you and what have you done with my husband?"

"Sorry. It's still me in here. Sometimes even my imagination isn't enough to overcome those pesky facts."

"Well, Jordan is over at the FBI's Manhattan headquarters now. This may be over by tomorrow." Kate said, a bit wistfully. "It was nice to get back in action, but…"

"All good things come to an end?"

"Take me home, Castle."

When Castle crawled into bed that night, he found that Kate was naked.

"Really? Did you have something in mind, Mrs. Castle?"

"Rick, it's been months since we made love. I'm going crazy."

"Me, too. But you were badly wounded. I am not, repeat, not, going to do anything that would cause you to relapse."

Kate pouted. "It's not like I'm asking you an all night long love fest, lover. Can't we just make out a little bit? Just for a while?"

"We could." Castle quickly went on when Kate started reaching for him. "But you know I can't resist you. I never have been able to."

She smirked. "Why I thought you said that I was the one that fell for you at once when we first met. Do you admit that was a lie?"

"I admit that I'd say anything when the woman I love is standing on a bomb. And one other thing, Alexis, better known as Dr. No Nookie, will hear us and raise hell."

Kate giggled. "Dr. No Nookie. Wasn't he a Bond villain? And we just won't tell Alexis what we're doing."

"She's just upstairs and she probably has the whole loft bugged with sensors that go off is anyone is fooling around. And we won't have to tell her. You make enough noise when you have an orgasm to wake the dead."

"And I suppose you're completely silent?"

"I'm capable of….."

Rick got no further. Kate slid next to him and pushed her hand down the front of his boxers.

"Oh, Rick." She teased. "Is this all for me?"

"Kate…." He began, but he was lost and he knew it. He pulled her even closer. "Okay. But, I'm going to kiss you the entire time so you don't scream or shout. And I'm just going to use my finger. Okay?"

"Spoilsport." She grumped. "But can I use my hand on you?"

"Okay."

As Kate grasped his erection and began stroking it, he ran his hand down her taut stomach until he found her slit. He found that she was already very, very wet. Deciding to be very careful, he slid just one finger inside of her as his thumb tweaked her clit. As Kate started to moan, he kissed her harder and managed to moan "uh uh" into her mouth. She managed to quiet down. He found her G spot and worked on that, then inserted a second finger in her. As he did so, she started pumping her hips up and down. He smiled to himself. He was sure that Kate was near climax. Then he noticed he was very near a climax himself. As he pushed down on her clit, he felt himself spurt onto her hand as Kate wrapped her arm around him more tightly and pushed herself off the bed until only her heels and her head were on the bed. Then she collapsed.

"God! I needed that." She moaned.

"Me too." He said, breathing hard.

"Care to go for round two?"

"I love you too much to take that chance."

"I love you too. I just wish you were more of a risk taker."

Meanwhile Junior Johnson was laughing and singing along with the radio in his car.

"Eddie," He said to his partner, "the first thing I'm going to do is get rid of this old junker and buy a cool car. Something really bad."

His partner shook his head. "The first thing I'm going to do is the bitch we have in the trunk."

"Man, with the money we made tonight, you can have all the bitches you want. They'll come running."

"The bitch scratched me when I hit her old man. I owe her."

Junior slowed and stopped at a red light.

"Eddie…."

That was as far as he got. Even though he had accepted Jesus as his personal savior, he could still recognize a MAC 10 submachine gun like the one pointed at them from the car that had pulled up next to them. It was the last thing he ever saw.

Once again, Richard Castle walked out of the bathroom to find his wife getting dressed in her work clothes. She had on a pair of skinny jeans and nothing else.

"No need to rush. I'm sure Jordan will call when she has news."

"We have news." Kate said. "The Beirut Bakery was robbed last night. Mr. Bakari is dead, the _hawal_ safe was robbed and Dalal Bakari is missing."

"Shit." Castle muttered.

"If you'll hurry up and get dressed, you can drive me to the crime scene."

"I'll do the best that I can, Kate. However, someone wore me out last night."

Kate walked over to her husband, putting her arms around his neck, and leaning into him.

"We'll never get to the crime scene if you keep doing that."

Kate backed away and stuck her tongue out at Rick. "Now you know what it's like to be left high and dry, so to speak."

Rick began taking his clothes out of the closet. "I don't remember you being at all dry."

She backed up to her husband. "Do the snaps on my bra, lover?"

"I'd rather be undoing them."

"Me too, but we have work to do."

When they arrived at the Beirut Bakery, Lanie and the CSU team were hard at work. Ryan, Esposito, Hastings, McCarty and Peake were just standing around.

Esposito spoke before Kate could.

"We canvased the area. This is strictly a commercial area. No one's here after the stores close. There are no traffic cameras for several blocks and we haven't seen any security cameras around."

"If it wasn't for bad news, we'd have no news at all." Castle said, getting a slight glare from his wife.

Kate walked over to Lanie, who was kneeling by Mr. Bakari's body.

"COD?"

"Blunt force trauma to the head would be my guess, but I can't give you a definite cause of death until I get him back to the morgue. But, it doesn't look like he put up much of a fight. No defensive wounds and nothing but dough under his fingernails."

One of the CSU techs called to Kate.

"We're not finding anything. Whoever did this was careful. But the safe was opened normally. No sign that it was cracked."

Kate nodded.

"Keep at it. I know you'll do a thorough job."

"We should go home. There's nothing we can do here." Castle said.

Then her phone rang.

"Certainly. We'll come back at once." Kate hung up and turned to her team. "That was Jordan Shaw. She's heard about the robbery and murder. She wants us all at the precinct." She stressed the word "all" just a bit.

"No defensive wounds?" McCarty asked.

"None."

"I'll bet they threatened the daughter to get the father to open the safe. He does so, they grab the money, kill the father and take the daughter."

"Or the daughter was in on it." Castle said quickly.

"You think she was more of a wild child than she let on?" Kate asked.

Castle shrugged. "Just putting it out there."

Back at the precinct Shaw told them the case was active, although they had no real leads. But then one walked in. A very unpleasant lead.

"Shakespeare! Good to see you again. I hear that you still need someone to protect you, though." Detective Slaughter turned to Kate. "And if you'd had a real man to defend you, you wouldn't have had a scratch on that hot body of yours. What do you say, Beckett? Care to go slumming with the Gang Task Force?"

Kate gave him a cold smile. "Care to see what a real precinct captain can do to your career?"

Slaughter laughed. "Sounds like you haven't been giving your lady the loving she deserves, Shakespeare."

Castle just glared, and Slaughter turned to Hastings.

"I hear you got those boobs of yours bruised, Blondie. Can I kiss them and make them better?"

"In your dreams, asshole."

Slaughter looked at Peake, who was smiling.

"What are you smiling about, Junior?'

"Just taking notes on your style."

"Yeah? Well, at least someone around here has their head on straight."

"I just watch what you do so I can do the opposite if I'm trying to impress a lady." To Peake's surprise, Hastings put her arms around him and hugged him.

"So who are you, Junior? I didn't know that the 12th had opened a kiddie section."

"Sergeant Vince Peake."

Slaughter laughed. "What police force would make you a sergeant."

"I'm not a cop. Staff Sergeant Vince Peake, US Army, Special Forces."

"So what do you do, Staff Sergeant Peake? Change diapers in the field?"

"I kill people."

"Really?" Slaughter's smile was fading. "That's hard to believe."

"I've seen him kill." McCarty said. "He's killed more people in the last five years than the whole NYPD. He's very good at killing. Care for a demonstration?"

"Who are you?" Slaughter glared at McCarty.

"Chief Warrant Officer Hank McCarty, also Special Forces."

Slaughter nodded. "You're the ex-cop who…"

McCarty cut him off. "I'm the ex-cop."

"Did you have some purpose in coming here, Detective." Jordan Shaw said. "Because if you're just here wasting our time, I can show you that the FBI can jam you up worse than any of these people."


	9. Chapter 9

The Girl I Left Behind Me

By

UCSBDad

Disclaimer: Sir! I do not own Castle, Sir! Rating: T: For language. Time: Three months after the end of season eight.

Slaughter leaned back against a desk. "You had a run in with a Junior Johnson the other day. We found Junior and one of his Trenchtown Posse pals, Eddie Mayne, dead in a burned car in the South Bronx. Submachine gun got 'em. Since Junior was a gang banger, the first responders called us. We got lucky. Whoever nailed Junior and company pulled the car into an abandoned building and lit it up. But the place was a homeless squat. One of them actually called the fire department. FDNY got there before the gas tank blew, so the car and the bodies are pretty intact. The shooter pried open the trunk looking for something."

"Any witnesses?" Kate asked.

"The homeless ran for it."

"We'll canvas the area. They'll probably still be around." Kate said.

"Hey, Captain. This is my case." Slaughter growled.

"No, this an FBI case. If we need anything from you, we'll call." Shaw said.

"Why don't I join in. I like working with the Feds. Especially female Feds."

"I'm married."

"Doesn't bother me."

Shaw pointed to the elevator. "Go. Now."

Slaughter shrugged and headed for the elevator. "Ladies, if you ever feel in need of…"

"Now!" Shaw barked.

Shaw turned to Kate. "I think it would be best if you went home."

"Jordan…." Kate began, but seeing the look in the FBI agent's eyes, she just shook her head.

"Also, "Shaw continued, "I have my own contact in the NYPD's Gang Task Force. I'll see what I can dig up on Junior Johnson and Mr. Mayne. Meanwhile, Esposito, you and the rest of the team can check out the homeless."

Castle took Kate's arm and headed for the elevator.

"Castle!" Shaw called to him. "I meant the whole team. You go with Esposito. I'll call a cab for Kate."

"No problem." He replied." I'll have my car service pick her up. And I'll give the driver strict instructions to take her home and nowhere else."

"Traitor." Kate whispered.

"I do this because I love you so much, Mrs. Castle."

That made Kate feel a little better.

By the time Castle got home in the early evening, Kate had been pacing the floor for so long that Alexis was afraid she'd wear a hole in the carpet.

As soon as Castle opened the door, she ran to him.

"What happened? Did you find out anything?"

"Slow down, Beckett. I could use a drink after what I went through today. And a long bath."

Kate ran to the liquor cabinet, got out a bottle of Rick's favorite Scotch and a glass. She poured three fingers in it, added ice and handed it to him.

"Scotch and talk now. I'll personally give you a shower later."

"You will not!" Alexis yelled. "If I let you two get into the shower, who knows what'll happen."

"Everyone knows what will happen." Castle replied.

"What happened at the crime scene?" Kate demanded.

"We got a great description of the shooter. The guy who saw him even drew a nice sketch. The guy's a talented artist. We'll have no trouble finding the perp."

Kate's face lit up in a smile.

"What's he look like?"

"He's a one hundred and twenty-foot long dragon, covered in green and gold scales. He has a forked tongue, razor sharp teeth and claws, and set the car on fire by breathing fire on it. It flew off towards New Jersey."

"You can get your own shower. "Kate snapped.

"That's the best description we got. It was dark and I'm afraid we ran into the most unobservant group of homeless in all of New York."

Kate put her arms around Rick and leaned her head on his chest.

"I'm sorry. I just can't get used to being so totally out of the loop."

"It's okay. We'll see Dr. Bravin next week. I'm sure he'll clear us for some activities, if not work."

"Some activities could be fun."

"Could we order some dinner?" Alexis interrupted.

"Good idea. Anyway, you'll be going to the precinct tomorrow. Shaw thinks she'll have something from both the Gang Task Force and the FBI."

The next morning, Vince Peake opened his eyes to see Ann Hastings looking at him.

"Looking for something?" He asked.

"I'm curious. Did you really kill as many people as McCarty said you did?"

"Probably not." Seeing that she didn't understand, he explained. "Combat isn't like in the movies. There's an old saying in the army. If you can be seen, you can be killed. So, sensible people take cover behind something that'll stop a bullet. And they move around a lot so no one can figure out where they are. Mostly I've shot at where I thought jihadis might be. Maybe I hit someone, maybe not. Maybe I killed someone, maybe not. If I hit someone for every shot I've taken, I'd have killed hundreds. As far as I know, I've only hit three people and killed two of them."

"You're ahead of me, Vince. Before the other day, I shot one person and he was wounded. He'll walk with a limp for the rest of his life, though. He'd raped a little girl. I was so angry, I did want to put another round in his head. But, my training kicked in."

"I had a jihadi RPG team, two men, walk out of a house right in front of me in Ramadi, Iraq. They were so fixated in shooting up a Hummer ahead of us, they never looked around. They guy I wounded tried to run a pickup full of explosives past a road block in A-stan. He'll limp for a while, too."

Hastings hugged him and grunted.

"Something wrong?"

"My boob still has a huge bruise on it." Suddenly she smiled. "Want to kiss it and make it better?"

"I thought you'd never ask."

When the team reassembled the next morning at the 12th Precinct, Shaw did have news for them.

"It turns out Mayne is just muscle for the Trenchtown Posse, but Junior Johnson was one of their money men. He found ways to launder the gang's money through otherwise legitimate, or seemingly legitimate businesses. He might have found out about the Bakari's _hawal_ through that. He may have been there casing the bakery for his own robbery, or maybe he hired Obrador and Suarez to do the job, figuring that using them wouldn't lead us back to him. Too late to ask him now."

"We should visit the Trenchtown Posse." Kate said.

"Actually, the head of the Posse, a Mr. James Holmes, is being brought in right now. It seems he has some very overdue parking tickets."

"Has his lawyer gotten here yet? He'll have a fit when he finds out we've arrested Holmes for parking tickets."

Castle shrugged. "A crime is a crime." He then began singing. "And a horse is a horse of course, of course."

"He really has gotten worse, hasn't he?" Shaw said, but smiling.

Rick and Kate observed Holmes from the observation room.

"He doesn't look at all worried." Castle said.

"He's been in places like this all his life. He knows what we can and can't do. And he knows that his people won't rat him out unless things really get bad. Shall we go talk to Mr. Holmes?"

"The game is afoot."

"You couldn't resist, could you."

"You'd be disappointed in me if I did resist." Castle smirked.

Holmes rose and held out his hand when Rick and Kate entered the interrogation room.

"Captain Beckett, and Richard Castle. What a pleasure to finally meet you. You're both quite famous, you know."

Kate thought for a second and then shook Holmes' hand. If he wanted to play the gentleman, she'd go along with him. For now. Castle followed suit.

"Actually, Mr. Holmes, we have met before. When I was a uniform, my partner and I arrested you for an assault. But you were arrested so many times for assault, you probably don't remember."

Holmes' façade didn't crack.

"Ah, yes. When I was a young man, I had quite a temper. I won all of my fights in those days but winning did more harm than good. I'm a much different man now."

"I should hope so." Castle said.

"But why did you have me taken in for some parking tickets? I swear to you that they just slipped my mind. I have many businesses to run these days. I have no intention of not paying them."

Kate ruffled through a file in front of her.

"I believe your familiar with a Mr. Junior Johnson and a Mr. Edward Mayne?"

"Mr. Johnson is a bookkeeper in a restaurant I own. If you like Jamaican food, you should drop by. As for Mr. Mayne, I can't place him. But I don't meet or know a lot of people who work for me."

"They were both murdered last night. Someone used a MAC 10 submachine gun on them and then tried to burn the car out to erase evidence. Luckily, the fire department got there in time.'

Holmes was either a very good actor, or he was genuinely surprised to hear of the deaths.

"Dead! Oh my God! That's awful. They were murdered, you say?"

Kate nodded, glad to have seemingly gotten Holmes out of his comfort zone.

"Mr. Johnson was seen near a bakery that had suffered an attempted armed robbery. It turned out the baker had quite a bit of money on hand. And now we find that the baker was robbed and murdered and his young daughter is missing." Kate smiled. "Would you know anything about that?"

Holmes bridled. "Of course not. Now, I'm prepared to pay my fine, and since that is why you brought me in, I'll do just that and leave." He stood up and headed for the door.

"We'd like to ask some more questions." Castle said quickly.

"Then I'd like my lawyer present. Are you arresting me?"

"No." Kate said. "You're free to go."

Holmes went.

"He seemed genuinely surprised to hear about the deaths of Johnson and Mayne and the robbery, death and kidnapping."

Kate shrugged." He's done this before. He's a gangster and a liar. He's probably involved.'

"Did you ever see the movie, or read the book, _The Gang That Couldn't Shoot Straight_?"

Kate wondered why Castle was changing the subject. If he was.

"It sounds vaguely familiar."

"It was a comic take on the Gallo-Profaci gang wars here in New York in the 1960s. The young Mafiosi did all of the work and took all of the risks, but the Old Mustaches, the senior Mafiosi, got all the money. That's what really happened back in the sixties. A generation gap between the old and the young gangsters led to a gang war."

Kate still didn't see what Castle was driving at.

"I was talking to a guy I know a couple of years ago…."

"I assume I shouldn't ask who he is?"

"It would be better. But, he told me that the Five Families here in New York made sure everyone was happy, so to speak so something like that would never happen again. However, some immigrant gangsters, like for instance the Jamaicans, hadn't. The bosses having grown up poor wanted big houses, fancy cars and clothes and fancier women. That didn't leave much for the poor working stiffs."

Kate nodded. "So, you think that Johnson decided to get rich on his own and leave Holmes out of it?"

"Could be."

"We should ask Jordan what financial evidence the Feds have on Holmes and the Trenchtown Posse in general. Maybe that'll help."

"Tomorrow we have to go see Fadal Bakari, the surviving son of the family."

Castle was surprised. "Tomorrow? I thought you'd have Ryan and Esposito down there ASAP, probably with McCarty and Peake as well."

Kate shook her head. "Muslim tradition demands that the dead be buried within twenty four hours of death. If we sent anyone to question Fadal, he'd just get pissed off at us for interfering with his religious duties. He's probably not too happy with us as it is."


	10. Chapter 10

The Girl I Left Behind Me

By

UCSBDad

Disclaimer: Sir! I do not own Castle, Sir! Rating: T: For language. Time: Three months after the end of season eight.

The next day Jordan Shaw brought in what information the Feds had on Junior Johnson and the financial dealings of Holmes and the Trenchtown Posse. It wasn't much.

"All we can tell you is that Holmes pays income taxes on the money he makes from legitimate businesses. Junior Johnson meets with a lot of flaky people, but no one has ever managed to catch him doing anything actually illegal. He was smart."

"Not smart enough to avoid ending up shot full of holes." Castle interrupted.

"Everyone has their limits, Castle. Even you."

Castle managed to look offended.

"Why Special Agent Shaw! No one has ever found my limits on anything."

"There was that trip to Cancun…." Beckett began.

Castle quickly interrupted. "I was sick. I was making sure you didn't catch anything in case I was contagious."

"And I had a very romantic time playing solitaire alone while you hugged the toilet bowl instead of me."

"That sounds interesting." Espo said, smiling." Tell us more, Beckett."

"Espo!" Castle cried. "I was deathly ill."

"And Mr. Johnson, Mr. Mayne and Mr. Bakari are dead. Let's get back on point, people." Shaw said impatiently.

"Deathly." Castle muttered under his breath.

Shaw did a very good eye roll.

"McCarty, Peake, Esposito, Ryan and Castle. Head for the Beirut Bakery and talk to Fadal Bakari. Kate and I will stay here and go over the financial records we were sent to see if we can find anything they missed."

Before Shaw could say anything else, her phone rang. She stepped into an empty office to answer it.

"That was the local FBI office." She said, coming out. "There's a team from DC that's going to handle the kidnapping of Dalal Bakari. They want me to go brief the new team. So, Castle, you'll stay here with Captain Beckett, go over the finances and don't let her do anything other than read financial reports. Is that understood, Kate?"

Kate nodded sullenly. As soon as Shaw's back was turned, Kate stuck her tongue out.

"Not the most mature thing you've ever done." Castle whispered as the others headed for the elevator.

"You must be rubbing off on me."

"Be nice and I'll rub on you tonight."

That put Kate in a better mood.

Dalal Bakari slowly woke up. Her head was pounding and her mouth felt like someone had used it for a toilet. The first thing she noticed was that music was playing. A second later she decided that she had earphones on her ears and that they were probably taped there with the same tape that was over her eyes. She had her hands cuffed behind her and she was naked, sitting on some sort of bed. She shuddered. She remembered what the man who had killed her father had said he was going to do to her.

She stood up and tried to walk. She came to a halt after only a few steps. She sat back down and waited.

After a long while, someone spoke to her through her earphones.

"I see you're awake. Good."

The voice had started out as a soprano and quickly changed to a bass. As the other person talked, the tenor of the voice changed constantly.

"I have no desire to hurt you." The voice went on. "Your eyes are blindfolded so you can't see me and the earphones will keep you from hearing anything other than my voice, which you've already figured out is electronically masked. As I've said, I have no desire to harm you, but if you try to escape, find out where you are, or who I am, you'll be punished. Do you understand?"

"Yes." Dalal said. She could barely hear her own voice. When he captor stopped talking, the music automatically began.

"You're naked, as you doubtlessly know. I have no interest in having sex with you, but you may be here a while, so you'll need to take care of your bodily functions. There's a toilet two steps to your left. That's as far as the chain will let you go. I'm sorry you'll have no way to clean yourself off, but that's just the way it is. Now, I'm going to feed you. Open your mouth."

Dalal was fed breakfast, which gave her an idea of how long she'd been out. Unless her captor was trying to fool her. Once a blob of cereal fell onto her lap. Her captor wiped it away and Dalal discovered that whoever had her was wearing latex gloves. _No fingerprints that way._ She thought.

"I'll leave you for a bit." The voice said.

Dalal thought about what had happened to her. The two men that had come to the shop. The guns. The threats to her to force her father to open the safe. Her father being shot. She'd tried to fight them then, but they were too strong. She'd been carried to the trunk of a car and tossed in with a duffle bag full of cash. As he'd carried her to the car, the man had told her what he'd do to her. She had been terrified. Then there was the sound of gunfire and someone opening the trunk. She saw only a darkened figure and then the jab of a needle. She had passed out.

She thought about her predicament now. It seemed like whoever was holding her was trying to keep her alive. That was good. But so many things could go wrong.

"I'm back." Said the voice, cutting off the music briefly. "Did you know who Mr. Castle, one of the men who talked to you, was?"

Dalal had been so upset when the police had talked to her, she could hardly remember anything. "No." She replied.

"Mr. Castle is an author. He writes about cops. They aren't my favorite reading for obvious reasons, but you might enjoy them. I'll be gone for a long while, so remember what I told you about trying anything."

Before Dalal could say or do anything, another voice come through the earphones.

"Nikki Heat wondered if her mother hadn't been murdered what her life would have been. Would she be hoofing like this…." The new, recorded, voice went on.

Fadal Bakari was no help.

"I don't know anything!" He yelled. "I have no idea who might have done all of this. No idea! Do you understand that?"

"We're sorry to have to intrude on you…" Shaw began.

Fadal kept at it. "My father is dead, my brother is dead and my sister has been kidnapped. I have to run the family business all by myself! How do I do that? And the _hawal_. What about that? There was over six hundred thousand dollars in that safe. What do I do when people come and want their money?"

"Is old Mustafa still around?" Peake asked.

"What?" Fadal was so obsessed with his own problems he had hardly heard Peake.

"Mustafa, the guy who runs the dry cleaners just across from your house. He'd s _qadi_ , a Muslim judge. He'd be able to tell you what Muslim law says about things like this. Your dad can't have been the first _hawaldar_ to have been robbed. Once you find out where you stand in Islamic law, you'll be better able to decide what to do next. As for the bakery, your sister said something about you being in some kind of baking school in New Jersey."

"How can I run the shop if I'm in school. And if I'm here, how do I learn my trade?"

"New York has lots of Muslims. Some of them must have some experience with baking. Hire some people. If they work out, fine. If not, fire them and hire someone else. You'll have to work hard for a while, but get the right people and you'll thrive."

Fadal, who had been totally overwhelmed by his problems a few minutes before, could now see daylight. "Thanks. I'll call Mustafa. Thanks again.'

They left Fadal to get on with his life and headed back to the precinct.

"Pretty good work with the baker back there, Doc. We'll make a real Special Forces soldier out of you yet." McCarty said with a smile.

"I hope that doesn't mean I have to wear these stupid white shirts all the time." Peake shot back.

"I think you look nice in a nice shirt and tie." Ann Hastings said.

When Vince Peake got into Hasting's cruiser and they were alone, she added. "Nothing but a nice shirt and a tie. But maybe you could lose the shirt."

Peake just laughed.

Meanwhile, Rick and Kate had gone over the financials Shaw had gotten for them. They found nothing new. Then Kate's phone rang.

"Sweetie, can you and Castle come down here? I have something for you."

"We'll be right there, Lanie. Me and my guardian."

"Guardian angel." Castle added.

"What did you find on the autopsies?" Kate asked as soon as she walked into the morgue.

"Nothing of any interest. CODs for both vics are multiple GSWs. But I sent the slugs I pulled out of the two over to ballistics for testing. Jordan Shaw told me to mention her name if I needed anything in a hurry, and did it work. But, I have good news and bad news."

Kate groaned. "And I'll bet the bad news is worse than the good news is good."

"Pretty much. The good news is that the MAC 10 that was used is in the system. It was used in a killing eleven years ago." Lanie picked up a file and read from it to get the information right. "The shooter with the MAC 10 was one David Stallings, a member of a white prison gang called Satan's Brood. The victim was another white prison gang member named George Clemmons. He was from some outfit called the White Horde, also a prison gang. They each shot each other, Stallings died at once and Clemmons was DOA at the hospital."

"So there was no trial?" Castle asked. "Both parties were dead, so no one to try?"

Lanie nodded.

"What happened to the MAC 10 then?" Kate demanded.

"According to the records, it was melted down with a lot of other guns that the police had seized. That was…." Lanie checked the file again. "That was almost seven years ago."

"Somebody stole the MAC 10 and kept it?" Castle asked.

"Thanks, Lanie. When Rick and I get back upstairs, we'll see who was involved in destroying the weapons. In the meantime…."

"No." Castle said sharply.

"Castle I need to go out…."

"No. Absolutely not. Whatever you want to do, you're not going to do it. I forbid it. You're staying right here in the precinct."

Kate looked unusually timid. "If you say so, Rick. We'll just have elderly sandwiches from the machine instead of going to Remy's."

"Lunch? You want to go to lunch? Why didn't you say so?"

Kate just rolled her eyes.

"Go back to your desk. I'll go to Remy's and get whatever you want."

Kate checked her watch. "I'll bet the others will be back soon. Why don't you wait until they're and then call Remy's and have them bring over food for everyone?" She winked at Lanie. "See what I have to put up with?"

That afternoon the FBI's kidnapping team came in. The team leader, a very business-like black lady dressed in the usual FBI uniform of conservative blue suit, white shirt and tie briefed them.

"Good afternoon. I'm special Agent Jesse James. Just so you know, I've already heard all of the jokes, so don't even try. I'm pretty sure my bosses would understand if I went ballistic on anyone who tried something funny. And, by the way, everyone either calls me Special Agent James, or JJ."

Castle sighed and slowly shook his head. Kate took his hand. "You can tell me what you would have said to her later, at home." She whispered in his ear.

"It's not the same." He grumped.


	11. Chapter 11

The Girl I Left Behind Me

By

UCSBDad

Disclaimer: Sir! I do not own Castle, Sir! Rating: T: For language. Time: Three months after the end of season eight.

Special Agent James went on. "We've set up the usual trace on Fadal Bakari's phone at the bakery, on his landline at the family home and his cell phone. However, we don't really expect a call from whoever took his sister, I'm afraid. Her abductors already have all the money the family had, and they've already killed the original two robbers, so the only reason to keep her alive for any period would be for…entertainment. But, we're working with other Federal agencies and local police for any clues as to who might have done this. And, if it's all right with Captain Beckett and Special Agent Shaw, I'd like to work out of the 12th Precinct. We're more likely to get some actionable intelligence from here than waiting for a phone call that'll probably never come."

Kate looked over at Jordan Shaw who nodded ever so slightly.

"Fine with me." Kate said.

"Me too." Shaw added.

"One other thing." James said. "I understand we have two US Army Special Forces people on this case. The briefing I got before coming here from DC wasn't too clear on what their role is."

McCarty introduced himself. "I'm Chief Warrant Officer Henry McCarty. With me is Staff Sergeant Vincent Peake." McCarty went on to explain how they'd found the corpse of Fadal and Dalal's brother with an Islamic State moneyman. "It seems to the Army that there could be a connection between the dead brother and the father's _hawal_. So far, nothing's come up, but we have to look."

Shaw spoke up. "We've had problems getting information out of the CIA in the past. I think that a request coming from the Special Forces will get better action from the CIA and other intelligence agencies than one from the FBI. Assuming that there is some connection between all of this and any terrorist organization."

James shrugged. "It's your call."

At the end of the day, they had no more information.

"You going out again with the blonde cop?" McCarty asked once they were back at their hotel room.

"Sure. That a problem?"

"No. I just like to know where my people are and what they're doing."

"Wow. This is just like having my dad back. I'll be sure not to stay out too late and I won't do anything foolish. And I'll fill the gas tank up, Dad."

McCarty gave him the finger. "Just remember what this "dad" does for a living. Don't fuck with me."

Peake laughed. "You know, Ann might have some friends. I could get you set up. You could use a little fun."

"A date with a cop? No thanks. I've had my fill of cops."

"Who said anything about a cop? Ann must know other people."

"I used to be a cop. Cops hang out with other cops. I'll be just fine all by myself. Have fun."

Once Peake was gone, McCarty booted up his laptop and got onto a website that very few people knew existed and spent the evening working.

Riding up in the elevator to the loft, Castle began to sing softly.

"Jesse had a wife to mourn for his life,

"His three children they were brave.

"But a dirty little coward, shot Mr. Howard….

"Castle! Do not ever sing that anywhere near agent James."

"You're a hard taskmistress, Captain Beckett."

"Perhaps I should get my handcuffs out tonight and see how hard you are."

Castle just smiled.

Beckett's phone rang just as she and Castle were finishing breakfast the next morning.

"Beckett."

"Sweetie, can you and Writer Boy come in? I have something for you. I don't want to talk about it over an unsecured line."

"Would it be okay if I brought Writer _Man_ in instead?"

Lanie just laughed.

"We're off?" Castle asked.

"We're off, Writer Man."

Once at the morgue Lanie explained the secrecy. "There were two shootings in the city early last night. Both were drive-bys using a MAC 10, .45 caliber. The first was on a guy named Jeremy Wong, allegedly he's the local boss of the Chinese Triads in New York. Wong is in the hospital, in serious but stable condition. We won't be able to talk to him for a couple of days."

"A drive-by on a Triad sounds like business as usual. What's this have to do with us?" Castle asked.

"I'm getting to that. Just listen. The second was on your old friend, Finn Roarke. Roarke didn't get a scratch. It seems some good Samaritan, that no one got a good look at, saw the shooter coming and dropped him."

"One of Roarke's goons, no doubt." Kate said. "Roarke'll protect him. I still don't get the connection."

"The FBI identified the dead shooter. A redneck outlaw biker named Earl Cousins. He just got through doing a nickel in Georgia for armed robbery. Now this is why the FBI considers this to be all super-secret. While in prison, Cousins got really friendly with a group of Muslim prisoners. The FBI thought he just did it for protection, it seems he had enemies inside, but now they're not sure. Plus, the FBI identified the slugs from both crime scenes. They came from the MAC 10 used to kill Junior Johnson and Edward Mayne."

"Okay. We need to go talk to our team. Thanks Lanie."

"Anytime, Sweetie."

The team was busy going over the information on the two shootings when Kate and Rick arrived.

"Kate, the doctors won't let us see Wong for a couple of days, but I'm going to take one of your people and go see this Roarke. I think maybe Ryan since he's Irish?"

"Neither you or Ryan will get anything out of Finn Roarke."

"Maybe if I describe in detail what will happen if he pisses off an FBI agent, he'll be more cooperative."

Kate shook her head again. "He won't be. But if he'll talk to anyone, he'll talk to me."

"No!" Castle shouted. "You're not going to interrogate some cold blooded killer."

Kate smiled at her husband. "Of course not. I'm just going to go down to his bar and have a friendly chat."

"And why would some mobster talk to you and not us?" Shaw asked.

"Because Kate killed the man who had killed one of Roarke's best friends. He sort of owes her for that." Castle said, not liking this at all.

"And he likes me." Kate said coquettishly. Then she explained what had happened with Dick and Jack Coonan.

"I don't like it." Shaw said. "You're not in any shape to out on the street."

"And not alone. I'll go with you." Castle insisted.

"You didn't exactly impress Roarke the last time you met. And Roarke will never talk in front of another cop."

"What about a non-cop?" McCarty asked. "He might be impressed with me."

"No!" Rick and Shaw said together. But, in the end everyone had to agree that Kate was the only one who had any chance of getting Finn Roarke to talk. And McCarty was the only person who could go with Kate and not arouse Roarke's suspicions.

When they pulled up in front of Finn Roarke's bar, Kate saw a burly fellow who'd been lounging outside run inside quickly.

"They know we're coming." Kate said.

"Good early warning system." McCarty said with a grin. "We have radar, satellites, drones and all kinds of other shit and the rest of the world uses some guy who keeps his eyes open."

As soon as they walked inside, Finn Roarke headed towards them. "Captain Beckett! I'm glad to see you're better. You should be more careful, lass. If you keep getting shot, one day it just might be permanent." He turned and yelled at the bartender. "Tommy! A cup of coffee for the lady. Grande skim latte with two pumps of sugar free vanilla." Then he looked at McCarty. "And I see you have a new detective in the 12th." This time Roarke didn't sound at all friendly.

"I'm not a cop. I'm a soldier. Chief Warrant Officer Henry McCarty, US Army, Special Forces."

"And what's a soldier doing with this lovely lass?"

McCarty explained what had happened in Africa and how that had led him to New York and what had happened since then.

Roarke shook his head. "A man in my line of work, a bar owner, that is, would have no desire to live anyplace where alcohol was forbidden. Nor would any good Irishman." He looked sharply at McCarty. "You said your name was McCarty? You're Irish then?"

"American. One hundred percent."

Roarke laughed. "A good answer. Now, Captain Beckett here is also one hundred percent American, but you can see by her beauty, intelligence and toughness that she's Irish, of course. Did you know she shot and killed the cold hearted bastard who killed her dear ma? The bastard also killed a dear friend of mine as well." Roarke smiled at Kate. "Ah, Beckett, if I were only forty years younger, I'd give your writer a run for his money."

"The smart money would be on Rick Castle, Roarke." Kate replied. "But you were shot at today. Was it just business?"

The Irishman shook his head. "I don't know what this world is coming to when an old man can't even walk down the street without some goon taking a shot at him. Sad, it is. Very sad."

"They say that the guy who shot at you had been very friendly with some Muslims when he was in prison in Georgia." McCarty said. "You ever have any trouble with Muslims? Or any dealings with them at all?"

"Muslims." Roarke said softly. Then thought for several minutes. "Did you look around when you came here? Oh, of course you did. Beckett's a cop and a good one and you're a soldier. It'd be second nature for you both to look for places you could take cover or where someone could ambush you. But did you look around you?"

"It's Hell's Kitchen. What were we supposed to see?" Kate asked.

"Fifty years ago, when I was a young fella, just off the boat from Ireland, the whole neighborhood was Irish. You couldn't go fifty yards without seeing a pub with a Guinness sign or hearing an old Irish song. Or seeing a pretty colleen."

"So?" Kate said.

"It's different today. This country changed the Irish. For the better, no doubt, but change them it did. We got educated." He laughed. "Well, some of us did. We got the jobs that we never could get in the old country. We got married and wanted to send our sons and daughters to the very best schools. And the Irish moved. They went to Long Island and North Jersey and they moved to Connecticut and all the bloody way to California. There are damned few Irish here in Hell's Kitchen any more. We have Jews from Russia and Puerto Ricans. We've got Laotians and we have Chinese. There's an Indonesian restaurant on the corner that used to have a place called O'Donnell's. There's a tailor from some country in Africa and a plumber from Ukraine. And all of these people are new to this country and its ways. Just like the old Irish, they need someone to show them what to do. They need to someone to go downtown and yell at the damned bureaucrats at city hall and get things done. And they need someone to make sure that no damned drugs come into Hell's Kitchen. I've done that for years and I do that now."

This time it was McCarty who laughed. "I've met a lot of men like you, out where there's no government, no law and damned little sight of God. But how are your relations with Muslims?"

Roarke smiled. "You may have met a lot of men, youngster, but you've never met a man like me. But, to answer your question, I have no problems with Muslims that I know of. But I'll ask around."

Kate tried to get them back on track. "In your trips to city hall or elsewhere you didn't happen to step on any Muslim toes, did you? "

'None that I know of, Captain Beckett, but as I said, I'll ask around." Roarke stood. "And now I think were done, Beckett. Or can I call you Kate?"

"You can call me Captain Beckett."

Roarke laughed. "You're a tough one, Katie girl. A tough one indeed."

Kate just nodded and they left.

When the two had left, the bartender came over to Roarke. "She has a fine ass, all right. But is that any reason to be friendly with the cops?"

Roarke glared at him. "I never had a better friend than Jack Coonan and she sent the bastard who killed him straight to hell."

"You'd have killed the bastard sooner or later."

"Aye, that I would have, Tommy. But Kate Beckett killed him, not me, and that counts for something with me. That it does. And it can't hurt to have a connection with a police captain. Those Chinese bastards and the Haitians and the Mexicans and all the rest are just waiting for me to die so they can sell drugs in my neighborhood. Well, this is one old Mick that'll take some killing, but, sooner or later….Now, get me a glass of Jameson's."


	12. Chapter 12

The Girl I Left Behind Me

By

UCSBDad

Disclaimer: Sir! I do not own Castle, Sir! Rating: T: For language. Time: Three months after the end of season eight.

Once in the car, McCarty took out an electronic device.

"What's that?" Kate asked.

"I want to see if they planted any bugs on the car or on us. They didn't."

"How paranoid are you?"

"Not paranoid enough. People are still trying to kill me."

They got back to the precinct and found that Shaw had some information on the dead shooter, Earl Cousins.

"He was a loner." Shaw said. "Never joined up with any of the big biker gangs. He did hang around with younger punks who were impressed with him. Eventually they got smart and figured out he was just some wild loser. Nothing more from the prison. He kept his nose clean and didn't have any particular friends. His cellmate for most of his time was a guy named Charles Richmond. Richmond couldn't handle being dumped by his girlfriend so he killed her and her new boyfriend. He had no criminal background that anyone can find and he'll be in prison for a long, long time." Shaw shuffled some papers. "The local FBI office found a hooker Cousins had been with, Carole Wasserman, street name Sparky. She said he got a call from somewhere up north and got all excited. Said he was going to make some real money and took off on his Harley. She didn't know who the call was from or what he was going to do. The local SAIC is having his people try to find anyone else who knew Cousins and will keep us informed."

"Hold on." Kate said, grabbing a file. "Cousins was killed driving a stolen Mazda Miata. Stolen from a commuter train station parking lot on Long Island. We need to try to find his Harley. If we find that, we'll know where he was staying and maybe who he was working for. Espo, why don't you and Ann handle that?"

"We're on it." Espo replied.

"The next thing…."

"Is for Captain Beckett to go home." Shaw interrupted.

"What? It's hardly past noon. I don't need to go home."

"Kate, you look tired and stressed. Talking to someone like Roarke can't be easy for you." Castle said.

"Being a cop isn't supposed to be easy." She shot back.

"Which is why I'm taking you home and fixing a nice lunch for you. Then you can take some of your meds and have a nap."

"We aren't going to let you do anything if you stay here." Espo said with a smile. "You may as well go home."

"This is mutiny." She grumped, but picked up her jacket from the chair.

"That's exactly what it is." Ryan said, smiling. "But if we need you, we'll call."

Kate glared at everyone but went with Castle to the elevator.

McCarty glanced at his watch. "About lunchtime. You ready, Peake?"

"Sure. How about Remy's. Everyone says they have great food."

"By everyone, I'm assuming you mean the blonde cop?"

"Yeah."

"I've told you I don't want to eat in some cop hangout. Apparently my family is still more popular around here than I am. I scoped out a place just one subway stop away from here. You like Mexican?"

"Do I have a choice?"

"No."

"In that case, I love Mexican."

Exiting the 12th Precinct, the two soldiers were stopped by a thin, grey haired man in an ill-fitting suit. "Excuse me, but are you the FBI agents looking into the disappearance of Dalal Bakari?"

"No, but we are involved in the case. "McCarty said. "Do you have some information?"

The man looked around with an embarrassed look on his face. "I don't want to cause anyone any trouble…."

"You're originally from Jordan, aren't you?" McCarty cut in.

"How did you know?" He asked, surprised.

"I'm good with languages. Your accent sounds Jordanian."

The man nodded. "My father was an official in the government. He was murdered by Palestinians when I was a boy. My mother was very afraid and we came to this country. I am a citizen. And I heard something…."The man stopped, looking unhappy.

"We can protect you."

"I just don't want to cause trouble for someone if it's nothing."

"If there's a problem, we can keep you out of it."

The man seemed to make a decision. "I am Hamid Saleh. I am a janitor at a mosque. The mosque of Hadj Mohammed al Amriki."

"Our people have talked to him."

"I do not want to get him in trouble if there's no reason….."

"But, if there's a reason, you'll want to tell us."

Saleh shrugged. "Last night I heard him on the telephone. He was far from me but I heard the word "girl" and "trouble". Everyone in the mosque knows about Dalal Bakari. However, it could have been any girl. A girl having trouble with her studies of the Koran, perhaps. Only God knows."

McCarty nodded, "Thank you. We'll check into this. And no one will mention your name."

Saleh smiled and walked off.

"No lunch then?" Peake asked.

"We'll eat." McCarty checked his watch. "Muslims pray at sunrise, then around noon, then late afternoon, next at sunset and finally before going to bed. I'd just as soon see al Amriki between prayers at the mosque. There'll be fewer people around. "

After lunch, they got back in their car.

"Reach under the dashboard." McCarty said. ''There's a Manila folder there. Pull it out and give it to me."

Peake did as he was asked.

McCarty pulled out some ID cards and badges. "FBI? I don't think so. We'd never convince even someone like al Amriki that you're in the FBI."

"I could always steal that guy Sorenson's clothes. You think he ever gets laid dressed like that?"

"He had a wedding ring on."

"Christ! What's his wife like, I wonder?"

"Probably wears conservative blue suit lingerie to bed. DEA? You look the part anyway. But why would the DEA get involved?"

"What do you mean I look the part?"

"Here we go. US Treasury agents. There's money involved. You're now Special Agent David Michaels. Try to remember your new name and act like you know how to count."

"Who are you?"

"Special Agent James Woodward."

"Maybe I should just call you boss? Or chief. Or _jefe._ Maybe _honcho_?

"How about Your Supreme Magnificence?" McCarty shot back.

"Special Agent Woodward it is."

They drove to the mosque and exited their car.

"Can I be the bad cop?" Peake asked.

"You? Be serious. I'm obviously badder than you are. I'm older, too."

"What's age got to do with it? What about Emelio Estevez as Billy the Kid in _Young Guns_? De Niro as Travis Bickle in Taxi Driver?" Peake snarled. "You talking to me? You….talking… to me?"

"Sorry. You're more like Vincent D'Onofrio in _Full Metal Jacket_ , or maybe Wile E. Coyote."

"Just for that I'm wearing a tee shirt tomorrow.

"Suit yourself."

They entered the mosque and soon found al Amriki. He made them at once.

"May I help you, officers?" He said softly.

"Special Agents Woodward and Michaels, US Treasury Department." McCarty barked.

"I have done nothing. This is a religious institution. All of my personal paperwork and that of the mosque is in order."

"We'll see about that." McCarty looked around suspiciously. "You helped to deliver money to a known terrorist front organization and the operator of a _hawal_ is dead, his daughter has been kidnapped and there's six hundred thousand dollars in the wind. What do you know about it?"

"Mr. Bakari and his family have long prayed here. I know of his death and that his daughter is missing. I was asked by a friend to drop a donation off to an organization that was not considered a terrorist front at the time. Aside from that I know nothing."

"Yeah, I'll just bet." McCarty started walking through the mosque. "Mind if we have a look around?"

"Of course not, Agent Woodward. As long as you have a warrant."

McCarty grinned. Peake had to admit it was an evil grin. "Suppose I decide not to get a warrant?"

"Then any evidence you get would be inadmissible in court. You know that."

"Inadmissible, yes. But what we find could make people think differently about you and your religion."

"Islam, like many other religions is a religion of peace. That does not stop people, of many religions, from doing violence."

Peake decided it was time for him to play good cop, "Jesus, Woodward. He's right. You go looking around here without a warrant and nothing you find will be useful. And we'll both be in a world of hurt. Let's go see about a warrant."

"Gutless punk." McCarty muttered, but headed for the door. "It won't be too hard to get a warrant on national security grounds." He shouted at al Amriki over his shoulder.

Once back in the car, McCarty smiled. "You did a good job. Maybe next time you can be the bad cop. You can be a young hot shot and I'll be the tired old veteran just looking forward to a peaceful retirement."

" _Lethal Weapon_?" Peake asked, smiling.

"If you have to."

They hadn't set one foot out of the elevator in the 12th Precinct when Shaw stuck her head out of her office. "You two. My office. Now!"

When they were inside, Shaw slammed the door and glared at them. "What the fuck do you two morons think you're doing? Going to the mosque and pretending to be Treasury agents?"

"We're not in your chain of command, Special Agent Shaw." McCarty quickly said, before Shaw could say anything else.

"What the hell does that mean?" She said, narrowing her eyes.

"Did you think we made up some IDs on a printer or something? Call up the US Treasury Department. You'll find they have two agents named James Woodward and David Michaels. Their records will have our faces, our fingerprints and our DNA. The IDs are completely legitimate." McCarty laughed. "So you have the mosque bugged. Good. We might learn something. As to what we're doing there, I'm trying to get al Amriki to run with the money. Once he's out of the US and in the Middle East, the military will take care of him."

"You mean you'll kill him."

McCarty shrugged. "It happens."

"Get out of here." Shaw said, reaching for her phone. An hour later she had talked to a half a dozen people and had gotten nowhere.

Meanwhile, at the Castle's loft, Kate had just woken up from a short afternoon nap. She turned to see her husband beside her, smiling. "It's awfully quiet. Where is everyone?"

"Alexis has a project to finish on campus and my mother is at her acting studio and then she's headed for a play a friend is in. No one will be back until after dinner."

Kate smiled. "Then we can fool around a little? Or a lot." Her hand went to Castle's belt buckle.

"I'm afraid not. Look." Castle pointed to the bookshelf in front of their bed.

It took Kate a second to realize there was something different about one book. "She has cameras in here? She's spying on us? Fine! We'll use her room."

"Cameras are there, too. In fact, unless you want to make love in the hallway, and upset poor Mrs. Wallenstein when she comes back from walking Charlie, we're out of luck. The whole loft is bugged."

"We'll toss the cameras in the trash chute."

"Oh, then she'll know we were fooling around. And she'll assume the worst. I'm afraid, Alexis, the Supreme High Preventer of Fornication, has us covered, so to speak."

Kate's eyes began to tear. "Dammit! This is worse than when we weren't together and I was starting to believe that you were in love with me and that I loved you, too. I want to make love to my husband. I want to show him how much I do love him."

"I know how much you love me, Kate. I love you totally, just like you love me. And one thing I will never do is take a chance on hurting you. Which could happen if we make out before we have a medical okay. So, Alexis wins this one. Okay?"

Kate nodded and then looked at the camera. "Alexis, as soon as I'm medically cleared, I'm going to fuck your father in every room in the house and on every piece of furniture. And we'll even fuck in the hallway and let Mrs. Wallenstein and Charlie watch." Then she stuck her tongue out at the camera.


	13. Chapter 13

The Girl I Left Behind Me

By

UCSBDad

Disclaimer: Sir! I do not own Castle, Sir! Rating: T: For language. Time: Three months after the end of season eight.

Dalal Bakari had been asleep. Even when she was sleeping, the headphones had kept playing music to drown out the sounds of anything near where she was. She had thought about trying to push the headphones off of her head, but couldn't think of a way to make sure they were back on properly when her captor came to check on her. So far she thought that her mysterious captor wanted to keep her alive, but if she was found trying to escape or learn something….Dalal didn't want to think about that.

She levered herself up so she could use the toilet. She suddenly found a hand on her arm.

"You're doing well, Dalal." The electronically modified voice was the same. Dalal couldn't tell if it was male or female.

The voice went on. "I'm almost done, so in a few days you'll be free. I have no desire to hurt you, but I have things to do."

Then the hand on her shoulder was gone and Dalal was alone.

Ann Hastings watched Vince Peake as he got dressed. "You're wearing a tee shirt again? I thought McCarty wanted you to wear a white shirt while on duty."

"He gave me permission yesterday." He turned and faced Ann. "Like the shirt?"

Ann read the shirt. The shirt itself was blue with the words "Fort Benning Home For Wayward Boys" across the chest. "We're you in some kind of group home or something?"

Peake smiled. "Sort of like that. With lots of outdoor activities to keep us too tired to cause problems."

Ann thought that Vince wasn't being totally honest with her, but then, he had an odd sense of humor.

Peake kissed her. "I'll take a cab to the precinct. Apparently, the news that you're dating some low life soldier would be a problem."

"It's not a problem for me, but the NYPD has a rule about people who work together dating. Rick Castle and Kate Beckett managed it, but Castle is a millionaire and a buddy of the mayor. I don't trust that FBI chick to be so accommodating. Those Feds just love rules."

"See you soon." Peake said as he left.

As soon as Rick and Kate arrived at the precinct, Jordan Shaw called them to her office and explained what had happened with McCarty and Peake with al Amriki. "I didn't join the FBI to set up US citizens to be killed in a foreign country."

"If Amriki is a terrorist and he's overseas, it's war…." Castle began.

"I know. I know. I didn't say I had a better idea. I just said I don't like this one. So lets try to solve this without having our country kill someone without a trial."

"That's what we do here." Beckett said.

Finally, they were able to see Mr. Wong, the alleged Chinese Triad leader who'd been shot. However, when Shaw and Ryan got to his hospital room, he was so surrounded by lawyers they couldn't even see him. However, the lawyers assured them that Mr. Wong knew nothing. Absolutely nothing. About anything. Disappointed, they headed back to the precinct.

Once assembled, the team began to check over police reports that might possibly have some relation to the kidnapping of Dalal. None of them did.

"This is worse than watching a second lieutenant try to read a map." Peake muttered.

Esposito lifted his head for the report he'd been reading. "Mind if I ask you guys a question?"

McCarty shrugged. "Anyone can ask us a question. You don't even need to make an appointment."

"I was Special Forces, a sniper with…"

"I know, Esposito." McCarty cut in. 'I read your military file. In fact, I've read the files on all of you. Except for Hastings. She hasn't attracted the government's attention." He waited a beat before adding. "Yet."

The rest of the team looked around at each other, but apparently decided they didn't want to know any more.

Espo continued. "What exactly do you guys do in Mali, or wherever? Can you tell us?"

That brought Castle and Beckett out of her office and Shaw out of hers. They all gathered around McCarty's desk.

He looked around and then came to a decision. "Okay, I'll tell you. It's not exactly secret, but I'd just as soon not read about this tomorrow in the Washington Post or something. Okay?"

Everyone nodded and moved a bit closer.

"Some African warlord or another is supposed to have said that he didn't need to give his soldiers salaries because he gave them guns. Meaning that his soldiers would rob the civilians for their pay. That's what a lot of third world armies are for: Keeping the populace in line. The soldiers join because it's an easy job with good benefits. The officers join so they can get rich and run the government. However, if you run into someone who wants to fight, those armies aren't much use. When the jihadis attacked in 2012. The Malian Army fell apart and was chased out of the north of the country. Then they called for help."

"No one wanted to see jihadists taking over a whole country in Africa or even part of one." Castle said.

"You've got it, Mr. Castle. The French sent in some 3.500 troops and the armies of Niger, Burkina Faso, Mauritania, and Chad got involved. They're all ex-French colonies that still have strong ties with France. And various other special forces and intelligence agencies got involved."

McCarty took a deep breath and looked around. "3500 French troops sounds like a lot, but the Sahel is some million square miles of territory. The local armies range from damn near useless to pretty good, although the Chadians are damned good. So, while trying to reform the Malian Army, we needed a stop gap to have someone ready to fight. I was selected to form a company of Malian "civilian" auxiliaries. Like the old Civilian Irregular Defense Group in Viet Nam. They're paid by the US, trained, equipped and led by US soldiers and they're recruited because they want to fight the jihadis. Most of them are motivated by revenge. We can't raise too many auxiliaries because that would piss off the official army and government of Mali, but it gives us something we can use. And that's what we do, Sergeant Esposito."

"Sounds like a tough job." Espo said.

McCarty just smiled. "To sort of quote author George Orwell, citizens sleep peaceably in their beds at night because rough men stand ready to do violence on their behalf. We're very rough and we do violence very well."

Dalal had used the toilet and felt dirty since she hadn't been able to clean herself off. She allowed herself to cry for a but, then settled down on her cot to try to sleep.

A hand touched her arm and a high-pitched voice spoke to her. "You've done very well, Dalal. I am done and now you may leave. But first…." She felt a pinprick on her arm and began to feel odd. Very odd indeed.

Dalal never knew how long she had sat there letting her mind wander. It wandered very, very far from where it normally was. Finally, she noticed that her hands were free. She reached up and began to pull duct tape from around her head. In spite on tearing out clumps of her hair, she managed to pull the earphones off and listened. She could hear the sounds of traffic from very far away. She tried her legs and found more duct tape. Lots more. But, she managed to pull it away and stood up. She promptly fell back on her butt. She carefully got back up and began to move. Move very slowly. Oddly, her feet felt like they were made of lead, but her head felt like it was floating ten feet over her body. She began walking, bumping into walls as she staggered about. She opened a door only to find herself in another room. Once again she stumbled through the room, colliding with the walls and falling once. Then she saw a gleam of light. There was another door and when she opened it, she saw a darkened street. She began moving as fast as she could, which was closer to a stagger than a run, but managed to find a more brightly lit street and went down it, passing several shopkeepers getting ready to open for business.

Officers Blanco and Halloran were looking forward to the end of their shift when they got the call.

"A naked woman on Twentieth, headed north?" Blanco grumped. "With our luck she weighs three hundred pounds, is on PCP and wants to fight."

"Welcome to New York, amigo." Halloran said brightly.

"Fuck you."

Turning onto Twentieth, they saw Dalal leaning against a lamp post. "That's got to be her."

"Christ, she's a mess." Halloran said as they dismounted their vehicle. "Miss, NYPD. You look like you need some help."

Dalal could only mumble incoherently at them.

Blanco led her towards the patrol car. "Damn! She's going to get shit all over the backseat. Get me a blanket from the back. "

Before they got her inside, an FDNY paramedic squad pulled up, having been sent by their precinct, the 54th.

"Got a live one?" Frankie, the lead paramedic said.

"You want her?" Blanco asked hopefully.

"Let me check her over."

He checked Dalal over, but wasn't able to get much that was coherent out of her.

"Odd. She's blitzed out of her mind on something, all right. Probably several somethings."

"That's not odd." Blanco retorted.

"Yeah, but she's got all of one needle mark on her. No track marks at all. Not on her arms, or even between her toes. And her hair is clean. No lice, no dirt and her nails are good. In fact it looks like she's had a manicure and pedicure lately. I'd guess she's some dumb ass rich kid who decided to go for a little walk on the wild side."

"Her parents are probably lawyers who haven't had their quota of law suits against the city this year." Halloran said brightly.

"We'll let her sleep it off in holding." Blanco decided.

Dalal was put into the holding cell by herself and promptly went to sleep from a combination of coming down from the drugs she was given and the wearing off of the adrenaline that had kept her going for days. Blanco and Halloran went off shift and no one on the new shift worried too much about one more screwed up kid in holding.

However, a detective began looking through missing person reports having assumed that Dalal was some rich druggie whose parents would be frantic to get their little darling back. It wasn't until Dalal woke up in the late afternoon that a connection was made between her and the FBI report of a kidnapping. It was almost quitting time at the 12th Precinct by the time Jordan Shaw got the news that Dalal had been found.

"She was picked up before dawn and you're just getting around to telling us now!" Shaw screamed. The cop on the other end made excuses and Shaw made a few impolitic remarks. Then she gathered Beckett's team and headed for the 54th Precinct.

An hour later, with Dalal headed for the emergency room with Ann Hastings and several uniforms, Shaw and the rest stood at the street corner where Dalal had been picked up. The girl had been able to give some information on her captivity.

"Jordan, once you get off this street, there are a lot of run down and abandoned buildings around here. The place she was held could be blocks from here in almost any direction. We can't get a search warrant for that many buildings."

Shaw grunted. "Kate, please have your people start canvassing the area. We know who called in reports of Dalal going by. Start there."

One business whose owner had called in first was already closed, but two more people clearly remembered where Dalal had come from. The team began walking down the street they identified.

"What exactly are we looking for?" Peake asked McCarty.

"The place where Dalal was held."

"And how do we tell where that is?"

"Look for someplace where you could hide a kidnap victim."

"You have no idea, do you?"

"Not a clue."

They walked further.

"Hey! Here's an open door. Should we go in?"

"Why not?"

"Didn't Shaw say we'd need a search warrant?'

"Cops need a search warrant. We're just two fun loving, all American boys looking for a good time in the Big Apple. Doesn't this look like a bar to you?"

Peake nodded and smiled. "I think I hear hot chicks inside."


	14. Chapter 14

The Girl I Left Behind Me

By

UCSBDad

Disclaimer: Sir! I do not own Castle, Sir! Rating: T: For language. Time: Three months after the end of season eight.

It wasn't a bar and there were no hot chicks, but two homeless people inside, after a small donation was made, remembered a naked girl running out of a building on the other side of the street.

The two soldiers approached Ryan and Esposito who were on the other side of the street.

"A couple of homeless types said they saw a naked girl running out of one of these two buildings." McCarty gestured to the two buildings.

"Great."Espo said, smiling. "We can get a search warrant on that."

"Why bother?" McCarty said. "Cops need a search warrant. We're just a couple of non-cops looking for a good time in the big city. This looks like a good place. And we didn't need a search warrant to get the info that led us here."

"You what?" Shaw said, coming up from behind them.

"We just wandered into the place across the street and met up with a couple of public spirited citizens who said they saw a naked girl run out of one of these two buildings."

"And what if your little non-cop adventure gets this case thrown out of court?"

McCarty shook his head. "So someone can complain we were trespassing."

"All of you. Back to the cars. I'll have Beckett get a search warrant so we can do this properly."

Judge Markway, in no small part because of his friendship with Rick, approved the search warrant in record time. Shaw, Beckett, Hastings and the uniforms searched the first building. Espo and Ryan waited outside, having been told to not let either of the two soldiers inside.

After ten minutes, Kate walked out. "This is it. It's just like Dalal described. The cot, the toilet, the headphones and everything else. But no money. CSU is on the way, they'll scrub the whole building to find anything that can tell us who took her. When we get back to the precinct, Espo you and Ryan find out who owns the building, any renters and anybody connected with it for the past five years. Then, we'll…."

"Take Captain Beckett home because it's way past her bedtime." Castle quickly said.

"Babe…" Kate began.

"And Captain Beckett will stay home and not come in to the precinct until noon." Shaw finished. "And that's an order. This is an FBI case and you work for me. Understand?"

Kate glared at everyone, then headed for the town car Rick had ordered.

By the time Kate arrived at her precinct, there had been some progress, of the negative sort.

Ryan was first. "We have a preliminary from CSU. They found prints from Dalal and from dozens of other people. We've run them through IAFIS. Every one of them matched to some homeless person who'd been picked up for some misdemeanor or another. CSU did find traces of talcum powder and latex. We're betting the perp wore rubber gloves if not a whole damned hazmat suit."

Espo followed. "The building is owned by the city. Taken it over for back taxes when the slumlord who owned it finally ran out of legal excuses not to make it habitable. No one's lived there officially for better than five years."

"So we have nothing?" Kate said, disappointed.

"We have Dalal back." Castle said.

"Where is Dalal?"

"Still say the ER as far as I know, but when they're done…."

"And there she is." Ryan said, cutting off Castle.

Dalal was just coming out of the elevator with LT and Ann Hastings.

Kate rushed over and gently hugged the young woman. "How are you, Dalal? "

Although she looked like she was about to cry, Dalal said she was fine, pulling away from Kate.

"I've said that too many times when I looked and felt like you do, Dalal, to believe that." Kate gave Dalal a big hug and the girl started to cry.

As Kate held the girl, Alexis shot out of the elevator and headed for the group huddled around Kate and Dalal. "I understand Mom was out on the streets last night and not in her office at the precinct like she should have been? Just who…?" She stopped as she saw Dalal. "Dalal? Is that you? My God! What happened to you?"

"You know Dalal?" Rick asked.

"We had a number of classes together at Marlowe Prep."

Meanwhile Dalal had gone from crying to sobbing.

"What happened?" Alexis asked.

Kate explained what had happened to the girl.

"That's awful!" Alexis gasped.

"And now see what I look like!" Dalal wailed. "I had to tear half my hair out to escape, and my skin has been torn and my nails are…..AWFUL!" She wailed.

Alexis turned to Castle. "Dad, call your car service. I'm taking Dalal for a mani and a pedi and the full spa treatment. And some new clothes wouldn't hurt either. Those NYPD sweats she's in are ten sizes too big. I'll need your credit card, Dad. AND, "she said, glowering at her father, "Mom had better be home by five o'clock and not to have been anywhere other than the precinct. Do you understand that?"

Castle nodded. "Yes, Alexis the Magnificent, Divine Ruler of the Universe, to hear is to obey."

"Hear tremblingly and obey." Alexis said, well, imperially.

When the two young ladies had left, McCarty shook his head. "I've heard of maternal instinct before, but usually it's from mothers."

"After what Alexis has had to put up with from Meredith, her birth mother…" Castle began.

"She's still Alexis' birth mom, Rick, and no matter what, she should be treated with respect."

"If she'd just respect someone other than herself." Castle muttered under his breath. Kate pretended not to hear.

When the two young women left the precinct, they didn't notice that they were being watched. Nor did they notice they were being followed when the car service picked them up.

Back in the precinct, Kate asked her team to continue.

Ryan began. "We've had uniforms canvassing the area. We have a guy who works at a soup kitchen a couple of blocks away who said that he'd seen a dark four door older model sedan in that area for a week or so."

"Anything further on that?" Kate demanded.

"Nothing. They guy never got a good look at it and the only other people in the area we've found are the homeless population. They head for more prosperous neighborhoods to panhandle during the day and when they come back at night, they have alcohol, drugs or mental health issues to keep them busy."

"LT found one guy who talked to the car, though." Espo said.

Kate glared. "Did the car say anything useful?"

"Not a word."

"Anything on the money?"

"Not a dime has turned up that we know of."

"Keep at it." Kate said and headed back to her office with Castle close behind. When she sat down, she slumped forward on her elbows.

"Are you okay?" Castle asked worriedly.

"No."

"I'll have Espo get a squad car and take you to the ER. Or should we call the paramedics to come here?"

Kate lifted her head up and smiled. "I don't need that, Rick. It's just that Dalal isn't that much older than I was when my mom was murdered. She's lost a brother and her father and was kidnapped as well. All I've managed to do is to have my very generous and ruggedly handsome husband pay for a spa day for her. Sometimes I just feel…useless."

Rick put his arms around her and held her tightly. "You're an amazing woman, Kate. That's why I chose you as my muse and my wife. You get upset when you can't jump tall buildings with a single bound, go faster than a speeding bullet…."

"Get my husband to do paperwork?" Kate teased.

"There may not be a super power for that." Castle confessed. "We have a whole afternoon to detective away before Alexis turns us all into pumpkins or something. Shall we get to it?"

"Let's look at that list of the hawal customers and see if any of the names, addresses or phone numbers pop."

Rick and Kate got home well before five to find Alexis waiting for them at the door. "Greetings, now if you'll just stand there and direct your attention to the top of the stairs."

Rick and Kate looked at the top of the stairs, but nothing happened.

"Ahem!" Alexis said. "Direct your attention to the top of the stairs."

In a few seconds, Dalal came out, looking down at everyone shyly.

Alexis continued. "I got her some hair extensions so you can't see where she pulled her hair out escaping, and she's had the full spa treatment. Note the black A-line skirt, stopping ever so slightly above the knee. Perfect for the not so conservative Arab-American woman. Dalal's silk blouse is from a lovely little boutique in Soho that Kate will just love, so don't ask for your credit card back quite yet, Dad."

"How are you feeling, Dalal?" Rick asked.

"Wonderful. Thank you so very much. I don't know how I'll ever be able to repay you."

"Don't worry about that. Just have a good life."

Alexis cleared her throat loudly and nodded to Dalal. "Did you want to ask my dad something?"

The young woman blushed and turned away. Alexis took over. "Dad, Dalal's mom has been in hysterics since her brother was killed and it got even worse when her dad was murdered and Dalal was kidnapped. We went by her house and it's full of old women weeping and wailing and Dalal just couldn't take it. Can she stay here for a couple of days?"

"Of course. We'll be happy to have you here, Dalal."

Dalal turned around and smiled. "Thank you. You're so kind to me and…" Then she began to cry again.

Feeling uncomfortable, Rick changed the subject. "How about dinner. Since Dalal is our guest, we could have Moroccan food, or there' a Lebanese place not too far from here. We can order some delivery. Um, what's your favorite food? I'm familiar with moussaka…"

"Could we have pizza?" Dalal asked.

"She _is_ an American girl, babe." Kate whispered in Rick's ear.

"I should have known."

The investigation ground on for another two days without finding anything. Then Espo came in with a file.

"CSU finally found something. Remember the redneck biker, Earl Cousins, who shot a Chinese Triad leader and got killed taking a shot at Finn Roarke?"

"What about him?" Kate aked.

"They used the GPS on his phone to find his Harley and when they found that, they found where he was living, some third rate SRO in Queens. Nothing on the Harley, and nothing in his room. No one in the place would admit to knowing him…."

"So it's a bust?" Castle asked.

"Not completely. The GPS showed he made three stops at a building in Spanish Harlem on 106th Street, corner of 3rd."

Ryan was already typing on his computer. "There's a coffee shop on the ground floor. Good place to meet someone."

Everyone was grabbing their weapons and coats when Kate spoke. "Wait a minute. I know that address…."Kate tapped away at her computer. "That's where Theresa Bolger has her office."

"Theresa Bolger?" Castle asked, frowning.

"The very angry lawyer we met when Hastings was shot."

"Her? Okay, how big a building is it? There could be a lot of people there who might want to use a crazy redneck killer."

"We'll just have to go see."

They all headed for the elevator, but when it opened, LT came out. "Castle, Beckett, we just got a 911 call from your building. Some woman Maced your doorman and headed upstairs. There was a witness. Said the woman has a gun."

 **Author' note: The finale will be up tomorrow.**


	15. Chapter 15

The Girl I Left Behind Me

By

UCSBDad

Disclaimer: Sir! I do not own Castle, Sir! Rating: T: For language. Time: Three months after the end of season eight.

"Description?" Kate demanded.

"Not much. Older, grey haired, conservatively dressed."

"Damn! Theresa Bolger? What the hell is she up to?" Kate shook her head to clear it. "How soon can SWAT get there?"

"Three hours." LT said. "There's a hostage situation in a grammar school and some nut with a bomb in a Catholic Church at Mass. Then there's a …"

"Okay, we get the picture. It's up to us."

"There are three units there, Captain. One's watching the back, one's blocking the garage, and the other is in the lobby."

"Tell them not to move." Kate yelled as the elevator doors closed.

They arrived at their building to find two officers, McNabb and Caruso, in the lobby. Eduardo, the doorman, was holding his bandaged head as an older woman that Castle recognized as living on the second floor comforted him.

"What happened, Eduardo?"

"She just walked up to me and sprayed me with something, Mace, the officers said. Then she hit me with a pistol."

"Did she say anything?"

Eduardo shook his head. "Not a word."

The woman spoke. "Mr. Castle, I was coming down the elevator and when it stopped, she just pushed past me and got in. It was then I noticed the gun in her hand. I don't think she even knew I was there."

"Mr. Castle." Eduardo said, "there's no one else on your floor this weekend. Except for Alexis and her friend, that is."

Kate nodded and looked around her. "Ryan, you and Hastings stay here in case she gets past us. Esposito and I will go…"

"With me." Castle said.

"Rick, I can't let…."

"Try to stop me." He said, softly.

"We're going too." McCarty said.

"You need a Fed." Shaw added.

Kate swore softly to herself. "Okay, but no one do anything unless I give the word. We go up the stairs."

Arriving at the door to the Castles' loft, Kate gingerly tried the door. Locked. She could hear someone yelling inside, Bolger from the sound of it, and the two girls. She took out her key and began pushing it into the door as softly as she could. Then the key stuck for just a second, then shot forward, making a noticeable sound. She could hear Bolger stop talking.

Kate opened the door to her worst nightmare. Theresa Bolger had her left arm around Alexis' and Dalal's necks and had a pistol jammed into the side of Alexis' head.

She spoke calmly. "Ms. Bolger, you don't want to do this."

Bolger laughed. "The hell I don't. I've wanted to do this since I was in college. It was all going to change, you know. We were going to smash your whole pig fascist capitalist police state and liberate the oppressed. We were going to build a whole new, perfect world. And then it all went wrong somehow. People stopped caring. They stopped working for a new world. They changed. When I tried to bring them to their senses, they said things like, "Oh, we were so naïve back then." Well, I'm not naïve now!"

"Ms. Bolger, neither Alexis or Dalal have done anything to hurt you or anyone else. Why don't…"

"This Arab bitch stole my money! And the redhead is just another rich little piggy. Oh, I know her. I know all of you! I know how you got your cop job, and your promotion and your millionaire husband. You just spread your legs and got what you wanted. I worked for years and got nothing. I tried to tell the oppressed to stop shooting each other, robbing each other, selling drugs to each other but they wouldn't listen. Those two idiot Jamaicans wouldn't listen. All they wanted was help in laundering the money once they'd stolen it." Bolger laughed. "They don't need to launder the money now, do they?"

"Ms. Bolger, we can…." Kate began.

"No we can't, you capitalist whore!"

Afterwards, Kate couldn't remember hearing the shot. She saw Bolger's head snap back with a red hole in her forehead and a spray of brains out the back of her head. The gun spun to the floor and Bolger collapsed.

She turned quickly to see McCarty lower his pistol.

"What the hell were you thinking?" Castle screamed. "You could have killed Alexis!"

Meanwhile Peake had pushed past Kate and checked Bolger, just briefly, then checked Dalal.

"Daddy!" Alexis screamed, while sobbing hysterically.

Rick turned from his confrontation with McCarty and rushed to Alexis.

Kate turned on McCarty. "What did I tell you? Nobody was to do anything unless I said so. You could have killed Alexis."

"No." McCarty calmly replied. "I've made that shot hundreds of times, both downrange and in the Funhouse."

"The Funhouse?" Kate had no idea what he was talking about.

"Close Quarters Battle Range at Fort Bragg. It's a bunch of houses with dummies made to look like terrorists. They can even move and fire weapons with blanks, although we use live ammo. To make it more interesting they'll put Delta Force people in as "Hostages." So far, we've only shot the dummies and never the real people. Same thing in real life. It teaches you to think quick and shoot quick. And shoot to kill. And, I don't work for you, Captain Beckett. I don't have to follow your orders."

"We'll talk about this later." Kate snapped.

Esposito drew her aside. "When I was in Special Forces, they ran some of us through that place. I sat between two dummies dressed as jihadis and I was scared shitless. But the D Boys put two rounds in each of the dummies' heads and I didn't get a scratch."

Peake interrupted. "Dalal is pretty beat up, but she'll be okay. Luckily the bitch didn't know anything about really torturing someone. But I think we should get both Dalal and Alexis to an ER and have them looked over."

Kate got busy calling an ambulance, a morgue wagon and CSU as well as notifying One PP of a fatal shooting.

Three days later, after getting a search warrant for Theresa Bolger's office and apartment, Kate and Jordan Shaw held a meeting with the team in Kate's office.

"Ryan, what do you have?" Kate asked.

"It took some digging to find the old police and FBI records from the late sixties and early seventies, but Bolger was exactly what she told us she was. She made a lot of violent speeches about overthrowing the government, represented all sorts of violent radicals, but never actually did anything illegal. She was suspected by both the FBI and the NYPD of funneling money to violent groups, but no one ever proved anything. Once the sixties ended, she became your basic anti-establishment lawyer, specializing in accusing the police of brutality and corruption. That's about all I got."

"Espo, what did you find with the search warrants?"

"No money, that's for sure. But we found out how she met Earl Cousins. She represented his little sister and kept her out of jail. Cousins was happy to shoot up a couple of New Yorkers for a nice payday and to repay the woman who helped his sister. I guess he didn't figure on getting killed."

"Any idea as to why Bolger hired Cousins?" Shaw asked.

"A couple of theories, but that's it. One, she wanted to distract us by starting a gang war so she could make off with the cash. Or, maybe it was politics. Roarke is a wealthy white man and a gangster, just the type she'd want dead. Maybe she went after Jeremy Wong because the Chinese dropped Maoism and became capitalists. We'll probably never know."

"Any idea how she got the MAC 10?"

"No idea."

"No one has any idea where the money went?" Kate asked.

"We're positive Dalal didn't take it." Espo said. "We talked to everyone who saw her when she escaped and no one saw a duffel bag full of money or anything except a naked chick running. If one of the homeless people in the area grabbed it, he'd be on a spree buying 20 year-old Scotch and we'd have heard about it. I'd bet one of Bolger's "oppressed" people got involved somehow, released Dalal to give Bolger someone to chase and took the money and ran."

"We've got nothing on Amriki." McCarty said. "He's just sitting in his mosque telling everyone that Islam is a religion of peace. If some gang banger did grab all that money, it's good for us, not so good for the NYPD."

"How are Dalal and Alexis?" Jordan Shaw asked.

"Both are doing better." Castle said. "I'm sending them both to Kate's old shrink, Dr. Burke. Meanwhile, Dalal is staying with us until her homelife settles down. Oh, and she's planning on going to City College of New York next fall to study business. Her brother will continue to study baking and she'll run the bakery. I might even invest."

"Just because it's a good investment, of course." Kate teased.

"Of course."

McCarty's phone buzzed and he glanced at the caller ID. "Excuse me, I'll need to take this alone." He stepped out of Kate's office and into an empty one.

The team was discussing wrapping up the case when McCarty came back in. "We need to go, Peake. We got some intel."

"About the money?" Shaw asked

"Yup. Do you remember Hamid Saleh, the janitor at Amriki's mosque that tried to rat him out? It seems he slipped past TSA on a light plane and crossed into Mexico four days ago. Intel has him at Ghat in southern Libya. There's an old Libyan air base there and the town is controlled by local Tuaregs who are only too happy to let a jihadi with over a million in cash set up shop."

"Over a million?" Shaw said.

"Apparently he was a bigger fish than anyone realized. He must have had an eye on Bolger and/or the hawal and took a chance when he saw one. " McCarty smiled and held out his hand. "It's been a pleasure working with you, Agent Shaw."

Shaw took his hand. "A pleasure, and a few other things, working with you, Mr. McCarty."

As everyone gathered around McCarty, Kate noticed that Hastings and Peake had snuck out of her office. She could see them, standing in the bullpen. She could only see Hasting's face, but she didn't look happy. Then again, she didn't look heartbroken. When the two came back in, they had neutral expressions.

"Will you come back to see us?" Kate asked. "I know that a lot of your family would really like to see you again."

"I might come back to see all of you. I like seeing how good cops work. As to the rest, we'll see."

"Would you two mind if a couple of Special Forces soldiers appeared in a future Nikki Heat?" Castle asked.

"Does Nikki have a twin sister?" McCarty asked.

"No."

McCarty shrugged. "I guess you can do it. But call me so you get the details right. Just call the base locator at Fort Bragg, North Carolina and tell them you're a friend. Someone will know how to get in touch with me."

And then they were headed through the bullpen and out of the 12th Precinct.

A week later Castle was in a writing haze in his office when someone grabbed his hand.

"Castle!"

He looked up to see his wife's boobs in his face. She was unzipping her skinny jeans as well. "I just had my final medical exam and I'm cleared for _all_ pre-injury activities." She glared at him. "Are you just going to sit there? Do I have to do this all by myself?"

"No! Of course not."

The two headed for their bedroom, leaving a trail of clothing behind them.

Much, much later, the snuggled together, tired and happy.

"Are you okay?" He asked, a little worried.

"I'm kind of sore."

He ran his hand over her most recent bullet scars. "Sorry. I'll be gentler in the future.

She took his hand and pulled it lower so that it was between her legs. "I'm sore there and I expect you to make me a lot sorer, understand?"

"As soon as I recover from the last three rounds."

Kate rested her head on his shoulder. "Victoria Gates came to see me today."

"Ah, what did Deputy Chief Sunshine have to say?"

"She told me that tracking down renegade CIA agents was not in the job description of NYPD precinct captains and, if in the future, any Fed, up to an including the President needed my help, I'd damned well better help from my office. She also said that she knows how hard it can be as a new precinct captain and that I should call her when I needed help and not be my usual stubborn self."

"Did she mention me?"

"She did. She said that if you ever want to write about an ex-IA officer turned precinct captain, you should be sure to write her as being warm and cuddly."

"I'm not sure my talent will stretch that far."

Kate giggled. "I suggest you not even try." Then, "I also had a talk with Captain Manucci from Personnel. Although I'm cleared for desk duty as a precinct captain, I'm still considered as being disabled in the line of duty. If I wanted to go back to being a detective, I wouldn't be allowed. He said that I could retire right now and make a little more than if I retired after twenty and wasn't disabled."

"We don't need the money, Kate, or are you deciding being a captain isn't for you?"

"I've always tried to pull my own weight financially, in spite of having a ruggedly handsome husband who spoils me outrageously…."

"That's the job of ruggedly handsome husbands. I can show you in the job description." Castle interrupted.

Kate gently slapped his arm. "And, I do think I can do some good as a precinct captain, making sure Espo and Ryan get a few more promotions and seeing that Ann Hastings gets a good start as a detective."

"But…?" Castle asked.

"I still want to try to go back to law school and be a lawyer like my mom. Help people who the system has forgotten. And I always wanted to be a mother, just like my mom. Are you ready to be a daddy again, Rick?"

"Why Captain Beckett, I thought you'd never ask."

Much later…..

"Fucking A!" Gunner cried. "Did you see that?" He ducked his head down inside the armored HUMVEE.

The ambush by the combined US-Malian force had reduced five Libyan technicals and a new Land Rover to burning hulks. Two of the Americans got out and headed for the Rover. In the air, they saw burning pieces of paper. The younger one looked at some that had landed on the ground.

"A couple of burning US hundreds."

The older one shrugged. "If anyone ever asks you if you've seen a million dollar bonfire, you can say yes."

They got as close to the burning Land Rover as they could and peered in the back.

"Could be our good buddy Hamid. "Doc said.

"You'll need to get DNA when the fire burns out."

They walked back to their vehicle.

"You ever think Beckett was wrong and that you would have been happier as a New York cop married to what's her name?"

McCarty laughed. "What? I've got fresh air, sunshine, healthful exercise and interesting people to meet and kill." He pulled a protein bar out of his jacket pocket and took a bite. "And great food. What about you? Would you be happier with the blonde cop or even the redhead?"

Peake shook his head. "I'd be so bored in a week, I'd want to eat my .45."

"You're crazy. Both of us are."

"But we're fun."

Both laughed.

The End

 **Author's note: I've started work on the next installment of the adventures of Lord and Lady Castle in Renaissance Italy, however those usually run long so don't expect to see it too soon. But, I have another story in progress set between episode 3.24 and 4.01. It's AU. I also will be working on a story set thousands of years in the future, but Rick will still be a writer, and Kate a cop, and other familiar faces will show up.**


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